740.0011 Pacific War/1686
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 19, 1942.]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit a translation of a letter which I have received from the Headquarters (at Chungking) of a so-called Korean Volunteer Corps enclosing a letter to President Roosevelt, the [Page 758] officers and men of the American armed forces, and the citizens of the United States.72
The letter itself is not of special note, and the part actually played by the Corps in the Sino-Japanese war is believed to have been inconsequential. As far as the Embassy has been able to learn, the organization itself is a small one, existing chiefly on paper, and supported and kept alive by the Chinese Government. With the United States at war with Japan, the American Government may, however, be interested in such organizations, whose potentialities should be greatly increased by the fact that unrest due to economic pressure will probably be first and most severely felt in Korea, and hence reflected among the very large numbers of Koreans now resident in Japanese-occupied China.73
Respectfully yours,
- Neither printed.↩
- The enclosures were not forwarded to President Roosevelt but were filed “without any action being taken in regard thereto”, at the suggestion of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, which assumed that the Koreans concerned did not expect a reply from President Roosevelt and probably were “satisfied with the courteous reception” received at the Embassy in China.↩