711.94114A/2–2045: Telegram

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

776. Legation’s despatch 8171, May 15, 1944.19 Request Swiss Government to have Gorgé deliver the following message to the Japanese Government:

The Japanese Government’s reply of April 24, 1944 to the United States Government’s protest of December 12, 194220 states that this Government’s protest was “made by distorting and exaggerating the facts.” This Government cannot accept a statement by the Japanese Government impugning its veracity. The United States Government’s protest concerning the treatment accorded by the Japanese authorities to American nationals in Japan and Japanese-occupied territory is based on documentary evidence which cannot be refuted in such an arbitrary fashion by the Japanese Government.

The statements contained in the Japanese Government’s reply of April 24, 1944 are so far removed from the facts as known to the United States Government that it can only conclude that the Japanese Government has permitted itself to be misled by fabricated reports of local officials and has not made an independent investigation of the matters protested in the United States Government’s note of December 12, 1942, The United States Government therefore considers the reply unsatisfactory and will continue to hold the Japanese Government answerable.

The Japanse Government has referred to Section IV of the United States Government’s protest of December 12, 1942 making certain charges against this Government. The reply to this reference will be the subject of a separate communication from this Government.21

Grew
  1. Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. v, p. 966.
  2. See telegram 2814 to Bern, ibid., 1942, vol. i, p. 832.
  3. See Department’s memorandum to the Spanish Embassy, August 7, pp. 363, 388.