740.00117 PW/1–645: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in Switzerland (Huddle)

245. Please request Swiss Foreign Office to deliver following message to the Japanese Government:

“(1) On July 6, 1944 the Japanese Government acknowledged receipt of notification that the USS Comfort was designated as a United States hospital ship.

[Page 425]

On October 24, 1944 at 0200 local time in the vicinity of latitude 08–50 North, longitude 128–50 East, the Comfort was attacked by a Japanese aircraft. At the time of attack the Comfort was proceeding at a slow speed. The vessel was conventionally painted as a hospital ship and fully lighted with two illuminated crosses on deck and four on the stack.

During this attack upon the Comfort three bombs were dropped, two of which landed close aboard.

(2) On July 14, 1944 the Japanese Government acknowledged receipt of notification that the USS Hope was designated a United States hospital ship.

On December 3, 1944 at 1600 local time at latitude 09–36 North, longitude 128–21 East, the Hope was attacked by a Japanese torpedo plane. This attack was made in daylight on a conspicuously marked hospital ship. Following this deliberate attack the attacking Japanese aircraft retired toward Mindanao.

(3) The United States Government emphatically protests against the above-described attacks upon the hospital ships Comfort and Hope, such attacks representing flagrant violations of the Tenth Hague Convention of 190797 as well as those principles, customs, and usages of international law attached to hospital ships. The United States Government insists that the Japanese Government give its assurances that attacks by the Japanese armed forces upon hospital ships will not be repeated in the future and that those persons responsible for the above-mentioned attacks on the Comfort and Hope have been punished.”

Please request Swiss representative to telegraph date of delivery of this communication to the Japanese Government and date of Japanese acknowledgment thereof.98

Grew

[In telegrams 1798, May 14, 1968, June 5, and 2046, June 15, to Bern, the Department requested the Swiss Government to deliver messages to the Japanese Government protesting, respectively, attacks by Japanese aircraft on the hospital ships USS Comfort on April 28, 1945, the USS Solace on April 30, 1945, and the USS Relief on April 2, 1945. The content of these protests paralleled that of telegram 245, printed supra.

In a message to the Japanese Government giving additional details concerning the attack of April 28 on the USS Comfort, the Department noted that a Japanese pilot had crashed his plane on board the vessel and then stated: “There was found in the wreckage of the [Page 426] crashed aircraft a Flight Intelligence document which listed two hospital ships among other ships present off Okinawa on the afternoon preceding the attack upon the Comfort. The fact that two hospital ships were included in a list of combatant ships in that area indicates that no effort was made to impress attacking Japanese pilots with the immunity of hospital ships. On April 9, 1945, at approximately 1500 local time, a Tokyo broadcast announced that the Japanese are justified in bombing hospital ships in as much as they are being used to repair ships and for the purpose of returning wounded men to the fighting fronts. The United States Government states emphatically that its hospital ships are not being used for repair or any other purposes not permitted by strict interpretation of the terms of the Geneva Convention relative to use of hospital ships” (telegram 2038, June 15, to Bern). The reference is to the Convention, signed at The Hague, October 18, 1907, for the Adaptation to Maritime Warfare of the Principles of the Geneva Convention of July 6, 1906, for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field. The texts of the two Conventions are printed in Foreign Relations, 1907, pt. 2, pages 12291235, and ibid., 1906, pt. 2, pages 15591565, respectively.

The files of the Department of State do not contain any Japanese replies to protests by the United States against attacks on American hospital ships.]

  1. Signed October 18, 1907, Foreign Relations, 1907, pt. 2, p. 1229.
  2. In telegram 771, February 3, the Chargé in Switzerland reported delivery of this communication to the Japanese Foreign Office on January 29 (740.00117 PW/2–345). In telegram 2942, May 29, the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison) reported that the Japanese Foreign Office had informed the Swiss Legation in Japan that an investigation was in progress (740.00117 P.W./5–2945).