793.94/15938: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 13—3:30 p.m.]
259. Incredible as it may be I am forced to conviction by what I have observed during the past few days that General Itagaki73 has [Page 878] embarked upon an effort to demolish city of Chungking by using light and heavy demolition bombs indiscriminately scattered throughout business and residential areas. I saw yesterday a cartoon roughly done in color and said to have been dropped from Japanese planes showing in upper half Chungking in flames with bombs falling and streets strewn with dead men and women and lower half showing what purported to be Nanking, a city in peace and light.
Repeated to Peiping, Shanghai. Peiping please repeat to Tokyo.
- Gen. Seishiro Itagaki, Chief of Staff to Japanese military Commander in Chief in China; Minister of War, 1938–39.↩