711.94114A/277a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)

274. American Interests—Japan. Please request Swiss Legation Tokyo to deliver the following textually to the Japanese Government:

The Government of the United States refers to its communication delivered to the Japanese Government on December 23, 1942 by the Swiss Legation in Tokyo6 in charge of American interests in Japan and Japanese-occupied territory concerning reports that the Government of the United States had received of the mistreatment of American nationals in Japanese hands. The Swiss Legation in Tokyo on May 28, 1943 forwarded to the Government of the United States a preliminary reply from the Japanese Government7 to this communication in which that Government stated that it would communicate in due course the results of investigations concerning each instance referred to in the note of the Government of the United States. No reports of investigations regarding these instances have yet been received.

The Government of the United States has taken due note of the statements of the Japanese Government “concerning the special circumstances prevailing in areas which have until recently been fields of battle” and concerning “the manifold difficulties which exist in areas occupied by the Japanese forces or where military operations are still being carried on.” The Government of the United States points out, however, that the regions in which Americans have been taken prisoner or interned have long ceased to be scenes of active military operations and that the Japanese holding authorities have therefore had ample opportunity to establish an orderly and humane internment program in accordance with their Government’s undertakings. Despite this fact the Government of the United States continues to receive reports that the great proportion of American nationals are the victims either of inhuman cruelty or of callous failure to provide the necessities of life on the part of the Japanese holding authorities, in violation of the common laws of civilization and of the Japanese Government’s undertaking to apply to American nationals the humane provisions of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention.8

There follows a statement of the principal categories of the deprivation of rights, cruelties, wanton neglect, mistreatment and hardships to which, according to information received by the Government [Page 922] of the United States, from many sources, Americans in Japanese custody have been subjected.

I.
Representatives of the Swiss Government entrusted with the protection of American interests in Japan and Japanese-occupied territory have not been permitted to go to every place without exception where prisoners of war and civilian internees are interned, have not been permitted to interview without witnesses the persons held, and have not had access to all places occupied by the prisoners (Article 86 of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention).
II.
Representatives of the International Red Cross Committee have been refused permission to visit most of the places where American nationals are held by the Japanese authorities (Articles 79 and 86).
III.
American nationals have not been permitted to forward complaints to the Japanese holding authorities or to representatives of the protecting Power (Article 42).
IV.
The Japanese authorities have punished and have threatened to punish American nationals for complaining concerning the conditions of captivity (Article 42).
V.
The Japanese Government has failed to furnish needed clothing to American nationals (Article 12).
VI.
The Japanese authorities have confiscated personal effects from American civilian internees and prisoners of war (Article 6).
VII.
American prisoners of war and civilian internees have been subjected to insults and public curiosity (Article 2).
VIII.
Civilians and prisoners of war interned by Japan are suffering from malnutrition and deficiency diseases because of the failure and refusal of the detaining authorities to provide health sustaining food for their charges, or to permit the United States to make regular shipments on a continuing basis under appropriate neutral guarantees of supplemental food and medical supplies.9 (Article 11 and the specific reciprocal undertaking of Japan to take into account national differences in diet).10
IX.
The Japanese authorities have devoted to improper and forbidden uses the profits of the sale of goods in camp canteens instead of devoting them to the welfare of the persons held in the camps (Article 12).
X.
Contrary to the specific undertaking of the Japanese Government, the detaining authorities have compelled civilians to perform labor other than that connected with the administration, maintenance and management of internment camps. Officer prisoners of war have been forced to labor and noncommissioned officers to do other than supervisory labor (Article 27).
XI.
Prisoners of war have been required to perform labor that has a direct relation with war operations (Article 31).
XII.
Medical care has in many instances been denied to prisoners of war and civilian internees and when given has been generally so poor as to cause unnecessary suffering and unnecessary deaths (Article 14).
XIII.
The Japanese Government has reported the names of only a part of the American prisoners of war and civilian internees in its hands (Article 77) and of American combatants found dead by Japanese forces (Article 4 of the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Sick and Wounded of Armies in the Field, to which Japan is a contracting party).11
XIV.
The Japanese Government has not permitted internees and prisoners of war freely to exercise their religion (Article 16).
XV.
The Japanese Government has not posted the Convention in camps in English translation, thus depriving American prisoners of war and civilian internees of knowledge of their rights thereunder (Article 84).
XVI.
The Japanese Government has failed to provide adequate equipment and accommodations in prisoner of war and civilian internment camps and transports, but on the contrary forced them to subsist in inhumane conditions (Article 10).
XVII.
The Japanese Government has completely failed to apply the provisions of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention (Title III, Section V, Chapter 3) with regard to trial and punishment of prisoners of war despite the fact that violations of its undertaking in this respect have repeatedly been called to its attention, but on the contrary has imposed cruel and inhuman punishments without trial.
XVIII.
The Japanese authorities have inflicted corporal punishment and torture upon American nationals (Article 46).

The Government of the United States emphasizes that it has based the foregoing charges only on information obtained from reliable sources. Many well-authenticated cases can be cited in support of each of the charges.

The Government of the United States also desires to state most emphatically that, as the Japanese Government can assure itself from an objective examination of the reports submitted to it by the Spanish, Swedish,12 and International Bed Cross representatives who have repeatedly visited all places where Japanese are held by the United States, the United States has consistently and fully applied the provisions of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention in the treatment of all Japanese nationals held by it as prisoners of war or (so far as [Page 924] they are adaptable) as civilian internees, detainees or evacuees in relocation centers. Japanese nationals have enjoyed high standards of housing, food, clothing, and medical care. The American authorities have furthermore freely and willingly accepted from the representatives of the protecting Powers and the International Red Cross Committee suggestions for the improvement of conditions under which Japanese nationals live in American camps and centers and have given effect to many of these suggestions most of which, in view of the high standards normally maintained, are directed toward the obtaining of extrordinary benefits and privileges of a recreational, educational or spiritual nature.

The Government of the United States demands that the Japanese Government immediately take note of the charges made above and take immediate steps to raise the treatment accorded American nationals held by Japan to the standard provided by the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention, which the United States and the Japanese Governments have mutually undertaken to apply.13 The Government of the United States also expects the Japanese Government to take proper disciplinary or penal action with regard to those of its officials, employees, and agents who have violated its undertakings with respect to the Geneva Convention and the international Common Laws of decency.

The Government of the United States again directs the attention of the Japanese Government to the system of neutral supervision provided in Article 86 of the Geneva Convention. The Government of the United States again reminds the Japanese Government of the complete fulfillment of the provisions of this Article as respects the activities of the Government of Spain acting as protecting Power for Japanese interests in the continental United States and of the Government of Sweden as protecting Power for Japanese interests in Hawaii.

The Government of the United States therefore expects the Japanese Government, in accordance with recognized practice of civilized states, fully to implement the provisions of the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention. The United States Government demands that the Japanese Government will, among other things, promptly implement the provisions of Article 86 in respect to the activities of the Government of Switzerland as protecting Power for American interests in Japan and Japanese-controlled territory and will make it possible for the Government of Switzerland to give to the Government of the United States assurances to the effect that Swiss representatives have been able to convince themselves by the full exercise of the rights granted under Article 86 that the abuses set forth in the foregoing statement have been completely rectified or that steps [Page 925] have been taken in that direction that are considered by Switzerland to be adequate.

The United States Government until the present has refrained from publishing in this country the facts known to it regarding outrages perpetrated upon its nationals, both prisoners of war and civilian internees, by the Japanese. The United States Government hopes that as these facts are now again officially called to the Japanese Government’s attention that Government will adopt a policy of according to United States nationals in its hands the treatment to which they are entitled, and will permit representatives of the protecting Power to make such investigations and inspections as are necessary in order to give assurances to this Government that improved treatment is in fact being accorded to American nationals. In such case this Government would be in a position to assure the American people that the treatment of American nationals by the Japanese authorities had been brought into conformity with the standards recognized by civilized nations.

Hull
  1. See telegram 2814, December 12, 1942, to Bern, Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. i, p. 832.
  2. See telegram 3389, June 4, 1943, from Bern, ibid., 1943, vol. iii, p. 990.
  3. Signed July 27, 1929; for text, see ibid., 1929, vol. i, p. 336.
  4. For correspondence on efforts by the United States to send relief shipments to Americans held by Japan, see pp. 1015 ff., passim.
  5. See Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. i, p. 797, footnote 30.
  6. For text of Convention signed at Geneva July 27, 1929, see Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. i, p. 321.
  7. Spain was protector of Japanese interests in the continental United States; Sweden in the Territory of Hawaii.
  8. For the Japanese Government’s undertaking in this respect, see telegram 398, February 4, 1942, from Bern, Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. i, p. 796.