394.115 Panay/331
The Navy Department to the Department of State
[Received December 20, 1937.]
The following information was received from the Commander-in-Chief Asiatic Fleet under date of 20 December, 1937:
There will be a news article in the New York Times today about activities of Colonel Hashimoto and discipline in the Japanese Army. Information contained in this article was furnished to correspondent Abend by Matsui92 who sent the information to Abend in a special plane. Matsui personally requested that the facts be published. As no Japan paper would ever dare print such matters of the Army, Matsui is hoping that the information contained in the article will be wired to Tokyo after it is published in America.
The article indicates that an unusual condition exists in the Japanese Army. The foregoing probably indicates disregard by the younger officers of the Army of any Tokyo Government agreement in regard to the Panay incident.
It is thought that the sinking of the Panay will lead to a break between the Navy and Army due to the fact that though Navy planes did the bombing and Navy took the blame they were carrying out Army orders and therefore the Army is responsible for the destruction of the gunboat.
- Gen. Iwane Matsui, Japanese Army Commander in Chief in Central China.↩