393.115/980: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 22—11:15 a.m.]
878. Embassy’s 837, September 14, 9 p.m. [a.m.],30 with regard to the bombing in China of American property.
In the course of my conversation with the Foreign Minister on September 21, I made reference to the fact that I had received the impression in our previous conversation of September 12 that, in respect to the vast accumulation of interferences with American rights and legitimate interests in China at the hands of Japanese armed forces and other Japanese agencies, the Minister was not familiar with the details and that, therefore, for the Minister’s personal information, I had prepared a list, although not necessarily a complete list, of such interferences which since the commencement of the current hostilities in China had come to the Embassy’s attention. Thereupon, I handed this list to the Minister in three sections: First section, [Page 698] dated October 31, 1939, was communicated to the Department in my despatch number 4218, of November 6, 1939; the second, dated June 10, 1940, was sent to the Department in my despatch number 4784, dated June 19, 1940; the third section, dated September 15, 1940, will be forwarded with my despatch number 5004, dated September 22, 1940.30a
To the Minister I sketched orally the various categories of interferences which these lists covered and stated that while his subordinates in the Foreign Office knew all or most of the items set forth in the list, I believed it was unlikely that the offenses would come to his personal attention, and, therefore, in order to acquire a fair grasp of the immense accumulation of Japanese offenses during the past three years against American rights and legitimate interests, I strongly urged him to study these lists in detail.
The documents were accepted by the Foreign Minister. He made the statement that after he gets settled in office it is his firm determination to sweep away as many of the “past troubles” between the United States and Japan as it is within his power to eliminate. On my part, I did not fail to indicate that many of these troubles are current rather than past.
This telegram has been sent to the Department via Shanghai. Shanghai will please send copies to Chungking and Peiping.