Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1932, The Far East, Volume IV

893.01 Manchuria/762

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Nanking to the Chinese Legation⁵²

[Nanking,] December 7, 1932.

General Tang Chu-Wu of the Self-Defense Army of Manchuria sent a cablegram to the League of Nations through this government to the effect that during the past few months, General Tang had retaken Tung-Hua and some twenty other hsiens and that his forces were approaching Mukden. The Japanese were greatly frightened by his success and despatched Ma Lung-Hsan, a puppet of theirs, to attempt to convert General Tang to their cause, offering to General Tang the post of the Commander-in-Chief of the Peace-Preservation Army of Liaotung and the sum of one million dollars as his reward for submission to the Japanese. This offer was bluntly rejected by General Tang. Failing in their attempt to convert General Tang, the Japanese then despatched fifty aeroplanes of the Third Division of the Japanese Army to bomb the district with poisonous gas bombs, causing tremendous damage to the population. The details of this wanton action cannot be here described in detail but a few salient facts can be reported.

(1) Commander Hsu Ta-Shan of the Eighth Route Army and Commander Chiang Shu-Kwei of the Third Brigade of the Third Route Army were intimidated and bribed by the Japanese to surrender to the puppet government. Hereafter, any illegal action taken by these men under the pretense of representing the Self-Defense Army or of the people for the purpose of propagating against the interests of the Chinese should be taken to be their own ideas.

(2) On September 16, the Japanese army massacred more than two thousand farmers of Pingtinshan. The details of this are as reported in a former cablegram.

(3) The cablegram of October 11 was received. After the Japanese army occupied Tunghua, they ordered two merchants, Shen An-Moh and Ching Shih-Shan, to dig their own graves and to bury themselves alive. The dreadful conditions attending such atrocity can be well-imagined, but the Japanese who gathered to witness the spectacle greeted it with laughter and applause. On the same day, the Japanese army forcibly tied some thirty farmers of Chingchuan with ropes and allowed more than ten hounds to bite and to mutilate them until they were dead.

(4) After the Japanese occupied Tunghua, the soldiers and officers were allowed to search the district for decent women and to go into public houses to commit violence. The soldiers were each paid fifty cents and the officers one dollar. Many women refused to submit to their violence, and deaths resulting from this cause were daily occurrences. Such action by the Japanese is certainly violating the fundamental principles of justice and humanity.

52. Translation of telegram transmitted to the Department by the Chinese Legation, December 9, 1932.