Office of the Historian

740.00115A P.W./7–1244: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)

Washington, October 16, 1944—midnight.

3532. American Interests—Japan. Please request Swiss Government to inform Gorgé that United States Government has received information considered reliable which indicates that on or about December 20, 1943 at a place near Kapitunan, Capiz Province, Panay, Philippine Islands, a detachment of the Japanese Army under the command of “Captain Tarasaki” brutally put to death a group of seventeen American men, women and children. The names of the Americans involved are listed below:

  • Dr. and Mrs. Francis H. Rose
  • Rev. and Mrs. Erie F. Rounds and their son, Earl Douglas
  • Miss Signe A. Erickson
  • Rev. and Mrs. J. H. Covell
  • Dr. and Mrs. F. M. Meyer
  • Miss Jennie C. Adams
  • Dorothy A. Dowell
  • Mr. and Mrs. Mark Clardy and children, Terry and John
  • Albert W. King.

Gorgé should be asked to approach the Japanese Government with a view to obtaining at the earliest possible moment such information regarding this matter as may be readily available and as may later become available through a prompt investigation of this matter by the appropriate Japanese authorities. If the information obtained from the Japanese Government confirms the deaths of these persons, a full report of the circumstances surrounding their deaths should be furnished for the United States Government. If the Japanese Government should deny the charges that the seventeen persons involved were brutally murdered, Gorgé should demand that the Japanese Government provide full information concerning the whereabouts and welfare of all of the persons listed.

Please request that Gorgé report when he takes up this matter with the Japanese Government81 and also that he keep his Government informed telegraphically of all steps taken by him to obtain the desired information.

Hull
  1. In telegram 7433, November 9, 5:45 p.m., the Minister in Switzerland reported delivering the information on October 31 (740.00115A PW/11–944). In airgram 1038, September 5, 1945, the Minister in Switzerland reported that Mr. Gorgé had intervened with the Japanese Foreign Office six times on the matter and had been informed that the names of the alleged victims did not appear among the lists of internees held by the military authorities and that investigation remained without result (740.00115A PW/9–545).↩