793.94/13175: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Lochhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 9—2:34 p.m.]
800. Rear Admiral Nomura, Chief of the Japanese Naval Special Service Section at Shanghai, issued a formal statement to the press yesterday in which it is stated that “Such cities as Canton, and Hankow” are “defended cities” protected by large numbers of recently installed anti-aircraft artillery “set up in all parts of these cities indiscriminately” and, in many cases, “in the immediate vicinity of property belonging to nationals of third powers” and that “under such circumstances, our air units have had no choice but to carry out their recent raids at higher altitudes than before, with the inevitable result that some civilian casualties and damage to dwellings and other structures located in close proximity to military objects have occurred”. The statement continues “while great care will continue to be exercised to secure the maximum degree of accuracy in the marksmanship of our air forces, it is, at the same time, our intention to carry out air raids with even greater vigor so as to bring the Chinese authorities to realize the futility of their present attitude and in order that the hostilities, of which these air bombardments are a concomitant part, may be brought to a termination as speedily as possible. It is, therefore, the desire of the Japanese Naval authorities that the citizens of third powers resident in those cities will not only themselves avoid the areas in which China’s anti-air defenses are located, but also advise the ignorant Chinese to seek shelter away from such zones.”
Repeated to Hankow, Peiping, Canton, Tokyo.