393.1163 Lutheran Brethren/126: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 19—7 a.m.]
601. Reference Embassy’s No. 358, October 28, 1939,85 and previous regarding bombing of Lutheran Brethren Mission at Tungpeh, Honan, on May 2, 1939. Embassy is in receipt of letter dated October 17 from Arthur E. Nyhus which reads in part as follows:
“In my letter to the Embassy dated August 12, I mentioned Tungpeh being bombed again on August 1, but that mission station escaped. As I was unable to go there myself I relied entirely on Chinese reports for information about that raid. In September I visited Tungpeh in order to put a marker on the grave of my daughter Phoebe, and also to arrange with different matters at the station. I found that the damage from the raid of August 1 had been greatly minimized. While direct hit had [not?] been made on our property, yet three bombs had fallen near enough to cause additional damage to the few remaining rooms. The roof had large holes from falling debris. One remaining brick wall is bulging and may fall at any time. While the remaining part of the missionary residence had been machine gunned, one bullet passing clear through roof, ceiling, and stopping at the brick wall of one [Page 407] upstairs room. I mention this only for your information, as it shows that in Tungpeh reoccupied territory, their chief targets seem to be our mission station. The three bombs mentioned above were all near enough to [and?] could have been intended for our property. At least two of them were within 100 feet from us. While machine gunning our house can hardly be explained as accidental. All of this cannot but be painful to us as we fail to understand why our mission there shall be a special object of their hatred. In most towns and cities, the property of Americans, it is presumed American flags, is considered by the Chinese as almost immune from attack by the Japanese planes. Here in Pingshih the local people flocked to our vicinity in times of air raid alarms. But in Tungpeh the mission station now is recognized by the people as the most dangerous place in the city, and they flee away from its vicinity in times of alarm.”
Embassy is forwarding copy of letter by air mail.86
Repeated to Peiping, Hankow, Shanghai. Peiping please repeat to Tokyo,87 by air mail to Yunnanfu.
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- See note No. 1426, December 5, from the American Ambassador in Japan to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 670.↩