393.115/403
The American Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Ugaki)
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to my note to Your Excellency’s distinguished predecessor, No. 924, dated May 17, 1938,9 relating to the restrictions placed by the Japanese military authorities upon the return to Nanking and other points in the interior of China of American missionaries, merchants, and others desiring to resume their activities or even to make visits of inspection, and to take steps to prevent the further deterioration of their properties.
Acting under further instructions from my Government, I now have the honor to state that the problem of enabling American citizens in China to reenter and reoccupy their properties from which they have been excluded by the Japanese military and of which the Japanese military have been and in some cases still are in occupation, is giving the Government of the United States increasing concern.
An illustrative case is that of the property of the University of Shanghai, a large and valuable plant located at Shanghai in the [Page 765] Yangtszepoo district. This University has been engaged for many years in educational work and is jointly owned by the Northern and Southern Baptist Missionary Societies. The premises of the University have been under continuous occupation by Japanese military and naval units since shortly after the outbreak of hostilities at Shanghai in August 1937. It is understood that the premises have been used by the Japanese for quartering troops and for military offices and a portion of the campus for stationing airplanes and supplementing the runway for airplanes on the adjacent golf course which has been converted by the Japanese into a military flying field. During the period of Japanese occupancy several buildings have been damaged and the majority looted. Japanese occupation of the property has continued for a period of nine months, notwithstanding the fact that hostilities in this locality long ago ceased. Repeated written and oral representations made by this Embassy to the Japanese Government and by the American Consul General at Shanghai to the Japanese authorities there have not so far resulted in bringing about restoration of the premises to the rightful owners. Recently representatives of the Baptist Missionary Society have stressed on behalf of the six million Baptist[s] in the United States the urgent need for the return to their possession of this important missionary educational property.
In various places in the lower Yangtze Valley American businessmen and missionaries have been prevented by the Japanese authorities from returning to their places of business and mission stations and are denied even casual access to their property. The American Consul General at Shanghai has made applications for passes in behalf of several American firms with important interests in that area in order to permit the representatives and employees of the firms to resume business after awhile, but such applications have repeatedly been refused by the Japanese authorities on the ground that peace and order have not been sufficiently restored. This has been the case even when the applications were for visits for the purpose of brief inspection and checking of losses or for the purpose of taking steps to prevent further deterioration of their properties, including stocks and equipment, during their enforced absence. Many Japanese merchants and their families are known to be in the localities to which these Americans seek to return.
American missionaries also have been prevented from returning to their stations in the lower Yangtze Valley. Certain mission properties in this region which were formerly under occupation by Japanese troops are now reported to have been vacated as a result of Japanese troop transfers and the missionary societies concerned feel it highly important that their representatives reoccupy and preserve such properties. In view of the fact that Japanese civilians are freely [Page 766] permitted to go into and reside in such areas—as for example at Nanking where some eight hundred Japanese nationals including a substantial number of women and children are reported to be in residence—it is difficult to perceive any warrant for the continued placing by the Japanese authorities of obstacles in the way of return by Americans who have legitimate reason for proceeding to the areas in question.
My Government is confident that the Japanese Government cannot but concede that vast infringement of and interference with American rights in China by the Japanese authorities involved in the situation to which attention is herein brought are contrary to the repeated assurances of the Japanese that American rights will be respected; that the Japanese Government will take immediate steps, in keeping with such assurances, to cause the return to their rightful owners of the premises of the University of Shanghai and other American property under the occupation of Japanese armed forces; and that the Japanese Government will issue instructions to have removed the obstacles interposed by the Japanese authorities in China against the return by American nationals to places such as those mentioned in the areas under Japanese military occupation.
I avail myself [etc.]
- Not printed; see telegram No. 315, May 17, 1938, noon, from the Ambassador in Japan, supra.↩