793.94/15940: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Grew)
202. Your 450, June 14, 7 p.m.74
1. Please call immediately on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and hand to him a formal note with language in effect as follows:75
Mr. Arita’s note was translated and brought to your attention after your meeting with him the afternoon of June 14 and it is of course obvious that it was prepared prior to the representations in regard to the indiscriminate bombing of Chungking which you made to him at that time. The attitude and position of the Government of the United States in regard to warnings such as that conveyed in Mr. Arita’s note have been made clear on several occasions to the Japanese Government. The Government of the United States cannot accept the view that the city of Chungking in general is a legitimate target for air attack.
There are a considerable number of American citizens at Chungking and there is American property at Chungking. The Government of the United States maintains there an office of its Embassy to China and a gunboat, the U. S. S. Tutuila. The American citizens at Chungking are there pursuing legitimate activities. The American officials stationed at Chungking, including the American Ambassador to China, are there pursuant to their official duties in maintaining the diplomatic relations of the United States with China. Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Arita’s note indicates that the Japanese Government does not intend to attack certain areas on the south bank of the Yangtze River in which areas the American Embassy is situated, experience of Japanese bombing operations has amply demonstrated the fact that when any extensive area is subjected to attack there results serious hazard to the lives of all persons in the vicinity, with [Page 879] oftentimes injury to many persons. While American officials have consistently advised and will continue to advise American nationals to withdraw from areas in which special danger exists, such American nationals are under no obligation to do so and in some cases find withdrawal impossible. Accordingly, this Government looks to the Japanese Government to avoid any military operations which would imperil the safety of American nationals and property at Chungking and will expect to hold the Japanese Government responsible for any injury or loss to American nationals occasioned by acts of Japanese armed forces.
2. It is suggested that you supplement the note with oral representations and that, in the course of those representations, you bring to Mr. Arita’s attention the obvious fact that the injuring or killing of American nationals by Japanese bombing operations will have a deplorable effect on relations between the United States and Japan.
- Not printed; it quoted the note of June 14 from the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, printed in Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, Vol. i, p. 691.↩
- For note delivered by Ambassador Grew on June 15 pursuant to this instruction, see ibid., p. 693.↩