740.00115 Pacific War/1206

The Department of State to the Spanish Embassy

Memorandum

The Department of State refers to the Spanish Embassy’s memorandum of October 27, 1942 with which there was enclosed a copy of [Page 1056] a telegram received from the Government of Japan through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at Madrid reciting reports received by the Japanese Government from Japanese subjects repatriated from the United States to the effect that they had suffered treatment inconsistent with the principles of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention, and protesting with regard to this reported mistreatment.

The Government of the United States has instructed all of its officers concerned with the handling of Japanese subjects to exercise the most scrupulous care that their actions with relation to Japanese under their control shall be governed by the humanitarian principles of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention and the generally recognized principles of international law. With a view to the maintenance of the highest possible standards of humanitarian treatment, the American Government has not hesitated in the past to investigate all complaints made to it by the Spanish Embassy or by Japanese subjects concerning alleged mistreatment or concerning differences of opinion between Japanese subjects and officers of the American Government with regard to the interpretation of the Geneva Convention. The American Government is now making a thorough investigation of every complaint reported by the Japanese Government in its telegram under reference with a view to removing the causes of legitimate complaints and taking appropriate disciplinary action with regard to them.

It would be appreciated if the Spanish Government would inform the Japanese Government in this connection that the American Government has itself received from American nationals repatriated from Japan and Japanese-controlled territory reports of shocking mistreatment, cruelties and insults, inflicted upon these American nationals by officers and agents of the Japanese Government and that the American Government has prepared a report concerning these experiences of its nationals for submission through the Swiss Government to the Japanese Government85 in the thought that the Japanese Government on its part will desire to make a thorough investigation of the complaints of American citizens regarding their mistreatment by its officers and agents with a view to taking the necessary steps to avoid the repetition in the future of abuses and to taking appropriate disciplinary action with regard to past abuses.

Pending the completion of the investigation that the American Government has undertaken it desires to make the following comments regarding the complaints recited in the Japanese Government’s protest:

1. The complaint regarding the treatment of the aged and infirm:

Elderly and infirm Japanese subjects have been detained for investigation only when there existed special reasons of a serious nature [Page 1057] necessitating their detention and have been ordered interned only when it has been determined after a thorough hearing, at which the persons in question have been permitted to appear and to produce evidence in their own defense, that there are grave reasons for holding them. A number of older persons who were detained temporarily on the outbreak of hostilities were released following their hearings. Others against whom orders of internment were issued have subsequently been released following reviews of their cases.

At all detention and internment camps and stations at which Japanese subjects have been or are being held, the American Government provides special medical care, and hospitalization when necessary, for the sick, infirm and aged. Furthermore, in all detention and internment camps the distribution of labor necessary for the maintenance of the facilities used by the internees is made by spokesmen elected by the internees themselves. These spokesmen take into consideration in the distribution of the labor to their fellow detainees and internees their age and physical condition.

2. The complaints about methods of transport and confinement:

Immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities the American Government proceeded to the construction at great expense of detention and internment camps prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention to which Japanese subjects, whom it was necessary to detain locally in the interest of the national safety, were transferred with the utmost rapidity possible. The Japanese so transferred were transported in standard trains and every effort was made to effect such transportation in the greatest possible comfort. It should be added with regard to this category of complaints that the Japanese subjects detained were not held in confinement in jails with criminals but were placed in special detention stations and camps and were not clothed as are convicts, being provided in most cases with clothing from American army stores in fulfilment of this Government’s undertaking to supply civilians detained or interned with clothing in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention for the supplying of needed clothing to prisoners of war.

3. The complaints of torture at camps:

These complaints have already been the subject of a thorough investigation, the results of which were reported to the Spanish Embassy by the Department of State in its memorandum of August 6, 1942.86

4. The complaints about compulsory labor at internment camps:

The Government of the United States has instructed all Commanders of detention and internment camps not to require labor from detainees and internees except in connection with the administration, [Page 1058] management, and maintenance of the camps, as provided in the Geneva Convention, and in connection with camp installations used for the benefit and comfort of the internees. The camp authorities have further been instructed that any other employment of the labor of persons held in their camps must be upon a voluntary basis, must not be in violation of Article 31 of the Convention, and must be compensated.

With reference to the employment of internees in the maintenance of gardens, swimming pools, et cetera, outside of the camp enclosures, it is understood that at some camps internees have labored on a voluntary basis, sometimes with financial compensation and sometimes with compensation in goods, in the maintenance of gardens, swimming pools, bakeries, and other installations outside of the camp enclosures proper. In such cases the internees were permitted to use the swimming pools, and the produce from the gardens and bakeries was consumed by them in the camps.

5. The complaints about treatment at the departure of the exchange ship:

The Japanese subjects brought to New York to be placed on the exchange ship were transported in Pullman sleeping cars and were housed in New York in a first-class hotel. Only a few suspect individuals among them were subjected to search. No Japanese subjects with official status were subjected to searches of any sort.

When the investigation to which reference has been previously made shall have been completed the Department of State will again communicate with the Spanish Embassy with regard to these matters.

The Department of State would be grateful if, in forwarding this preliminary reply to the Japanese protest, the Spanish Embassy would inform the Japanese Government that in the American Government’s opinion the best proof of the readiness of a belligerent to accord to enemy aliens in territories controlled by it the full benefit of the humanitarian provisions of applicable treaties, conventions, and agreements, as well as of international law, is afforded by the readiness of that belligerent to permit representatives of the Protecting Power to have access to all places where enemy aliens are held.

In its assurance of its own honorable intention to accord to Japanese nationals subject to American control the full benefits of all applicable humanitarian provisions of international law and treaties, the Government of the United States continues to be willing to permit representatives of the Spanish Embassy, as the Protecting Power for Japanese interests, to visit all places in which Japanese subjects are held or accommodated by the American authorities.

The American Government desires to remind the Japanese Government in this connection that the best assurance that Japan is fulfilling its undertakings in respect to American nationals subject to its control would be afforded by the granting of permission for representatives of the Swiss Government in charge of American interests in Japan [Page 1059] and Japanese controlled territory to visit all places without exception in which American nationals are held.

  1. See telegram No. 2814, December 12, 1942, to the Minister in Switzerland, Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. i, p. 832.
  2. Not printed. The memorandum gave the substance of a Department of Justice report that a Japanese was struck and injured by an inspector in an altercation, “that some of the aliens were required to stand for long periods of time, some merely to show respect for the examining officer … ; some were shouted at and called liars and damned liars; some were seized by the body or clothing and shaken or pushed; and some were confined in the guard house at Fort Missoula for varying periods of time.” The officers responsible were removed. (740.00115 Pacific War/714)