The text of my oral statement, a copy of which I left with the Minister,
and a coded text of which is being sent tonight by air mail to Shanghai
for repetition to the Department by the naval radio is appended.
The Minister’s only comment was the usual formula that every effort was
made by the aviators to avoid accidents when bombing military objectives
but that he would convey my representations both to the military and
naval authorities. I pointed out to the Minister that in view of the
great heights from which the bombs were dropped, in a wholesale and
indiscriminate way, the chance of hitting specific objectives was very
small while the risk of injuring foreign nationals or property and of
causing widespread casualties among the local population was very great.
The Minister replied merely that such bombing operations were part and
parcel of the Japanese military operations in China and that as soon as
these hostilities ceased, the risks of which I complained would likewise
cease.
The Minister asked me what sort of publicity I thought ought to be given
to our interview. I suggested that he say that I had come to discuss the
general political situation but he replied that this would be too vague
to satisfy the press. He then suggested an announcement that I had come
to discuss current American problems in China. I agreed with this
suggestion on the ground that some elements in the Army might be
undesirably inflamed by a statement of my precise representations which
might merely serve to incite the military to more intense depredations.
(In agreeing to the Minister’s proposal I had in mind the fact that if
my precise representations were passed down to the Bureau of
Information, the official spokesman, Mr. Kawai, if true to form, would
very likely serve up the story in an inaccurate and sensational form.
Mr. [Page 647] Dooman, at my suggestion,
later discussed the point with Mr. Yoshizawa who thought that it would
be best to leave the matter of publicity as arranged between the
Minister and myself). I however told the Minister that with a view to
satisfying American public opinion my Government might feel obliged to
give detailed publicity in the United States to my representations.
[Annex]
Oral Statement by the American Ambassador in
Japan (Grew) to the Japanese
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Arita) on
May 11, 1989
On September 20, 1937, I called on His Excellency Mr. Hirota,88 then Minister for Foreign Affairs, and, under
the instruction of my Government, I made to him most earnest and
emphatic representations with respect to the plan announced at that
time by the Japanese naval forces to bomb Nanking. I pointed out and
dwelt at length on the grave danger to foreign diplomatic
establishments, personnel and non-combatants, as well as the serious
effect on American public opinion which some accident in connection
with those operations would entail.
Two days later, on September 22, 1937, again acting under the
instructions of my Government, I delivered to Mr. Hirota a note, no.
780, dated September 22, 1937,89 setting forth clearly and succinctly the
American Government’s views with respect to the announcement of the
Japanese naval forces in China of the plan to resort to bombing and
other measures of offense in and around the city of Nanking.
I have now been instructed by my Government to call on Your
Excellency and, primarily on humanitarian grounds, and in
reiteration of the representations made on both occasions mentioned,
emphatically to express the most serious concern at the recent
indiscriminate bombings of the civilian populations of Chungking,
Swatow, Ningpo, and Foochow. According to information reaching my
Government, the destruction caused by these air raids by the
Japanese forces was confined almost entirely to civilian lives and
the property of civilians.
Your Excellency is undoubtedly aware of the feeling aroused in the
United States by the indiscriminate aerial bombing of the civilian
population in various areas in China in the past. I cannot too
earnestly impress upon Your Excellency the serious responsibility
which devolves upon the authorities charged with the guidance of
Japan’s [Page 648] foreign relations
to restrain the military or naval forces responsible for these
indiscriminate bombings from a course which, if continued, will
inevitably create a progressively deplorable reaction in the United
States. The American Government and people—let me repeat from
previous representations—are and always will be concerned, primarily
from the humanitarian point of view, in the mass bombing of civilian
populations wherever and however carried out.
Added to the humanitarian factor applying to non-combatants
generally, there exists the emphatic objection of the American
Government to the jeopardizing of the lives of its own nationals
which must inevitably arise from such indiscriminate attacks. I need
hardly remind Your Excellency of the repeated bombings of American
property in China, of which approximately 140 separate instances
have come to my Government’s attention during the present
hostilities, in spite of the fact that these properties were clearly
marked by American flags and their positions notified to the
Japanese military authorities. Loss of American life, wounds and
serious property damage were caused. The fact that during a recent
period reports of these attacks on American property dwindled, and
for a time actually ceased, gave us the hope that effective steps
were being taken to meet our representations.
But now, with wholesale bombing operations renewed, I must draw Your
Excellency’s special attention to the fact that the American Embassy
in China is at present appropriately established in Chungking, the
seat of Government, while American Consulates exist in Swatow and
Foochow, and that private American citizens, following their lawful
occupations, are present both in those places and at other points
currently subjected to these indiscriminate attacks from the air. I
respectfully point out to Your Excellency the grave risk of
incidents which might have a seriously adverse influence upon the
relations between our two countries. In saying this I merely state a
fact which must be patent to anyone having knowledge of the normal
reactions of the American Government and people to a given
circumstance or set of circumstances. In the light of past
experience I would be derelict in duty if I failed to emphasize this
risk, and the prime importance of avoiding such risk.
Therefore both on humanitarian grounds, involving the safety of
non-combatant civilian populations, and on the grounds of the
serious risks involved in jeopardizing the lives and property of
American nationals, both official and private, I earnestly appeal to
Your Excellency to take such effective steps as will terminate these
indiscriminate bombing operations now current in China.
