Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1941, The Far East, Volume V

393.1121/104

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Joseph W. Ballantine⁷²

[Washington,] November 7, 1941.

Participants:	Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, Japanese Ambassador
	Mr. Kaname Wakasugi, Japanese Minister
	Mr. Hull; Mr. Ballantine.

In handing to the Japanese Ambassador the ribbon copy of the attached oral statement, the Secretary observed that this Government had not released to the press information concerning this case;^72a that public discussion of the case cannot but add to the difficulties in relations between Japan and the United States; and that the Government of the United States hopes that the Japanese Government will take speedy measures in regard to the matter. The Secretary also referred to the contrast between the attitude of the Manchurian authorities in dealing with this case and the liberal attitude this Government had shown in disposing of the espionage case last summer involving three Japanese naval officers.⁷³

In reply the Ambassador stated that if the Japanese gendarmerie in Manchuria was handling the case the Japanese Government would issue appropriate instructions to the gendarmerie but if the case was in the hands of the Manchukuo authorities the Japanese Government would take up the question with the Manchukuo Government.

[Enclosure]

Oral Statement

On October 22 three American missionaries, the Reverend Bruce F. Hunt and Dr. and Mrs. Roy M. Byram, received written orders from the Public Procurator to proceed to the Public Procurator’s Office at Harbin for questioning. Early in October the missionaries were informally taken to that office and questioned about their viewpoints concerning obeisance by Koreans at shrines to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. At the same time the houses of the missionaries were searched and photographs and Korean language papers were taken from those houses. The questioning of the missionaries was apparently related to some criminal proceedings involving Korean Christian converts taking place in the Antung district court.

Having proceeded to the Public Procurator’s Office in compliance with the written order above-mentioned, the missionaries were detained overnight by the police in the Harbin police building. The American Consul thereupon took up the question of their detention with the delegate at Harbin of the Hsinking Foreign Office and requested that the latter cause the police to release the missionaries. However, the police insisted on detaining the missionaries and went so far as to keep them incommunicado. On October 26 representatives of the Department of Police Affairs of Antung Province removed the missionaries to Antung, some 500 miles distant, presumably for further questioning, although the exact purpose of their forced trip has not been disclosed.

Although the American Consul at Harbin last week again made representations to the local authorities that the detained American citizens be released, and although the American Ambassador in Japan has requested that the Foreign Office in Tokyo cause the release of these Americans, the latter are still being held by the Manchurian police at Antung.

72. Mr. Ballantine, appointed Consul General at Ottawa on October 23, was a Foreign Service officer detailed to the Department on special consultation since February. Prior to that he was Assistant Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, and his appointment as Counselor of Embassy in China on February 28 was canceled.
73. “Detention and Removal to Antung for Questioning in Criminal Proceedings of Reverend Bruce F. Hunt and Dr. and Mrs. Roy M. Byram, American citizens in Harbin.”
73. See vol. iv, pp. 266–267, 272–274, 282–283, 294–296, and 506–507.