393.115/580: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
64. Reference Hankow’s 61, March 16, 4 p.m.,22 in regard to the third bombing within 9 days of American Church Mission property at Ichang. Department desires that, unless you perceive objection thereto, these most recent instances of disregard by Japanese military forces of American lives and property be made the basis of a formal and emphatic protest to the Japanese Foreign Office. Department suggests that the attention of the Japanese Government again be invited to the ever lengthening list of instances in which, as the result of air raids by Japanese forces, American properties, although clearly marked and previously reported with accompanying maps to the Japanese authorities, have been damaged and in some cases destroyed. Department also suggests that you mention in particular the bombing of the American Lutheran Mission at Tungpeh, which resulted in death and injuries to certain members of the Nyhus family,23 and the bombing on February 25, 1939, of the Catholic Mission at Loting, in the course of which an American citizen was seriously injured.
Department would further suggest that urgent request be made for the prompt issuance by the Japanese Government to its appropriate authorities in China of such instructions as may be required to prevent any future recurrence of the bombing of American properties which in the past has, as indicated above, resulted in extensive material loss and in death and injury to American citizens.
Repeated to Chungking, Hankow, and Shanghai.
- Not printed.↩
- See note No. 1105 from the American Ambassador in Japan to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, October 31, 1938, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 627.↩