740.00117 P.W./119
The Spanish Embassy to the Department of State
Ex. 119.01
Memorandum
The Spanish Embassy presents its compliments to the Department of State and begs to transmit the following Memorandum received through the “Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores”38 of Madrid, from the Japanese Government:
Memorandum—June 16th, 1944—
“1. United States fighters and bombers, that raided Rabaul on the 23rd and 24th May, constantly and repeatedly bombed and fired at the residential sections.
They even perpetrated unscrupulous attacks on a hospital and its annexes, causing a serious damage to the buildings and large number of casualties among the sick and wounded who were under medical treatments there and the nurses. All the hospital buildings were at that time filled to capacity with the sick and wounded, and of course, no part thereof was used for any military purpose. They were all marked with distinct and large red crosses on a white ground so that they might easily be identified from above.
The United States raiders made the attack in broad daylight and from a low altitude. The weather was fair, and the visibility good. It was therefore, perfectly easy for any pilot, however unskilled, to discern from the red cross marks that his objectives were hospital buildings. In spite of this, the American attackers did not stop the bombing and firing until the greater part of the hospital and its annexes had been destroyed. These facts cannot but show that the raid of the hospital was carried on deliberately and intentionally.
2. The above mentioned conduct of the United States airmen is a flagrant violation of International Law, and in particular of Article 27 of the [Annex to the] 1907 Customs of War on Land,39 and Article 6 of the 1929 Red Cross Convention.40 Moreover, it is in under [utter?] disregard of principles of humanity.
3. The Japanese Government lodge an emphatic protest with the United States Government against the unlawful act committed by the United States raiders, demanding at the same time the punishment of the persons and a guarantee for the prevention of recurrence of similar acts.
The Japanese Government also reserve all rights of claiming an indemnity for the damage and injury caused by the above-mentioned unlawful attack.”
- Ministry for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Signed at The Hague, October 18, 1907, Foreign Relations, 1907, pt. 2, pp. 1204, 1212.↩
- Signed at Geneva, July 27, 1929, ibid., 1929, vol. i, pp. 321, 323.↩