702.9411a/19

The Japanese Embassy to the Department of State 22

1. On April 8, 1937, when the Japanese Consul-General at Honolulu and his party were lined up on a pier of the Honolulu Harbor to see the departure of the Japanese tanker Hayatomo, an unknown foreigner in civilian clothes appeared in front of the group and took a photograph. The attitude of the photographer was very impolite.

2. This was not the only case of Japanese residents being photographed in similar circumstances by unidentified photographers. Whenever a Japanese warship visited Honolulu, persons entering and leaving the ship were watched by unidentified foreigners who surreptitiously took photographs of them. The motive behind such acts being unknown, much uneasiness was caused to the Japanese residents of the Island. The Japanese Consul-General called to the individual mentioned above, who happened to be about twenty feet away from him, with the intention of ascertaining his motive. As the Consul-General [Page 810] and his party approached to within five feet of him, the Consul-General asked one of his staff to inquire of the said individual his name, profession and identity. (The Consul-General never grasped him by the arm or jerked him around.) It was learned that his name was Carroll (it was known later that he falsified his initials) and that he was a photographer by profession. He, however, failed to identify himself as belonging to the navy at that time.

3. The said member of the staff asked Carroll to surrender the film, as a matter of courtesy, stating that a photograph of the Consul-General taken by an unknown person might easily be misused.

Carroll declined to consent to this request and proposed to have the matter settled at a police station or any other proper place.

4. Thereupon two members of the Staff of the Japanese Consulate-General, and a secretary of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, together with Carroll went to the police station, with the object, on the part of the Japanese, of ascertaining the identification of the unknown person. At that time Carroll was asked whether he was willing to ride in a car owned by the Japanese. He consented and voluntarily entered the car. It is not a fact that Carroll was forced into the said car.

5. Investigation at the police station revealed that Carroll was a member of the Intelligence Bureau of the Naval Authorities at Honolulu. The Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, acting as spokesman, asked Mr. Carroll to surrender the film. As he still refused to comply with the wish, the matter was dropped.

6. The Consul-General explained to Captain Kilpatrick, Acting Chief of Staff, who visited him on the following day, that Mr. Carroll voluntarily entered the car and was not forced to do so by any means, that from the beginning there never was a question of any use of force against him and that as this was a minor incident he did not think it worth while to report it to the Foreign Office.

  1. Handed by the Japanese Ambassador on June 28 to the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs.