711.94114A/5–445: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)
1707. Japanese radio broadcasts report considerable damage to Omori and Shinagawa wards during April. It is a matter of concern to the Department that the Shinagawa prisoners of war hospital (reurdes 11336, April 4) and the Omori prisoner of war camp (reurdes 11335, April 4)39 were at the time of the Swiss representative’s visit still located in an area subject to bombardment. Have the camps been [Page 333] moved since the time of the visit? If not, request Swiss Government to have Gorgé protest strongly to the Japanese Government along the following lines:
The United States Government is reliably informed that the Tokyo prisoner of war hospital, Higashi Shinagawa, is situated close to a port near and on the road leading to bonded warehouses and that the Omori prisoner of war camp is flanked on either side by industrial installations not more than 500 to 1,000 meters distant. Article 9 of Geneva Convention provides that no prisoner may be used to give protection from bombardment to certain points or certain regions by his presence. The United States Government demands that the inmates of the Shinagawa hospital and of the Omori prisoner of war camp be moved to a zone of safety immediately and that a report of the transfer and the location of the new sites be made to the United States Government.
The United States Government declares that the failure of the Japanese Government to remove the hospital and the camp from a target area as well as any failure to remove other prisoner of war camps from danger zones will have the most serious consequences for the responsible Japanese authorities.
- Neither printed.↩