393.1123 Nyhus, Phoebe/21: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 10—7:45 a.m.]
1402. Reference my No. 1388, November 3, 1 p.m. regarding bombing of American Mission at Tungpeh. Japanese Consul General called on me last evening and stated that further military reports received show that when Japanese troops were pushing south from Sin-yang toward Hankow the Chinese forces had concentrated at Tungpeh with the intention of launching an offensive against the Japanese column and Japanese planes were sent on the morning of October 24 to bomb the western portion of Tungpeh, heavy anti-aircraft fire prevented the planes from flying low enough to distinguish objectives, that the Japanese Army had been aware of the presence of an American church at Tungpeh but the forces had no detailed map of the village so the exact location of the American Mission was not known, that reconnoitering planes had been sent several times after the 13th of October to locate the mission but heavy anti-aircraft fire had prevented them from flying low enough to distinguish any marks or to find the mission, that the bombing of the mission was not deliberate, that he again expressed the regret of the Japanese military and that the Japanese authorities are ready to take proper steps to compensate for the damage done. He said that the Japanese have not yet taken Tungpeh.
Repeated to Chungking, Peiping, Tokyo and Hankow.