393.115/819
The American Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Nomura)
The American Ambassador presents his compliments to the Imperial Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs and has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of certain of the latter’s recent communications replying to representations made by the American Government concerning instances of damage to American property and interests in China, of injuries and indignities inflicted on American citizens, and of restriction and denial of American rights in China. A list of the communications under acknowledgment is appended.6
Copies of these notes received from Admiral Nomura are being forwarded to the Secretary of State and also to the various appropriate American consular offices in China for reference to the injured parties. After further careful investigation by the respective consular offices, the findings will be fully reported by them to the Department of State in Washington. Previous replies of a similar nature which the Japanese Government has made in the past to representations of the American Government in regard to damage to American property and interests have been similarly dealt with. It has been noted that, in the majority of cases in which investigations by American consular offices in China have been made, the findings as reported to the Department of State have been at variance with the reports of the Japanese military authorities upon which the replies of the Japanese Government have been based.
Mr. Grew desires to express the appreciation of the American Government for the increased interest, as evidenced by the recent large number of replies received, which the Japanese Government appears to be taking in a number of claims of American citizens against the Japanese Government growing out of the Sino-Japanese hostilities. At the same time, he suggests that a more favorable impression might well be created in the United States if concrete evidence were received of an earnest desire on the part of the Japanese Government to afford to those claimants equitable amounts in compensation for damages sustained.
- Not printed; it lists 58 communications.↩