USS Panay incident

The USS Panay incident was a Japanese bombing attack on the U.S. Navy river gunboat and three Standard Oil Company tankers on the Yangtze River near the Chinese capital of Nanjing on 12 December 1937. Japan and the United States were not at war at the time. The boats were part of an American naval operation called the Yangtze Patrol, which began following the joint British, French, and American victory in the Second Opium War.

The bombing raid resulted in the sinking of the Panay as well as the deaths of three Americans on board, plus an unknown but likely high casualty toll amongst the Chinese passengers in the three river tankers.

Public reaction was mixed in the U.S., with Franklin D. Roosevelt weighing various diplomatic and military responses only to settle for an apology and compensation.

The Japanese claimed that they did not see the large U.S. flags painted on the deck and canvases of the gunboat. Tokyo officially apologized and paid a cash indemnity of US$2.2 million. The settlement mollified some of the U.S. anger, and newspapers called the matter closed.

However, camera footage taken during the attack showed Japanese aircraft flying so low near the Panay that the pilots' faces were visible, providing "potent evidence that the mistaken identity claim was not true."

Background

A flat-bottomed craft built in Shanghai specifically for river duty, Panay served as part of the US Navy's Yangtze Patrol in the Asiatic Fleet, which was responsible for patrolling the Yangtze River to protect American lives and property in China.

After invading China in the summer of 1937, Japanese forces had fought their way to the city of Nanjing in the early weeks of December. The Japanese then began a fierce attack on the city and its surrounding region, which would later culminate in the infamous massacre of hundreds of thousands of civilians and prisoners of war.

right|thumb|300px| underway during the standardization trial off [[Wusong|Woosung, China, on 30 August 1928.]]

Since November, the Panay had been evacuating U.S. citizens from the battle zone around Nanjing. On 11 December, the Panay evacuated some of the last remaining Americans from the city, bringing the number of people aboard to five officers, 54 enlisted men, four US embassy staff, and 10 civilians, including Universal Newsreel cameraman Norman Alley, Fox Movietone News cameraman Eric Mayell, The <nowiki>New York Times'</nowiki>s Norman Soong, Collier's Weekly correspondent Jim Marshall, La Stampa correspondent Sandro Sandri and Corriere della Sera correspondent Luigi Barzini Jr.

The Panay was also tasked with escorting three Standard Oil tankers, Mei Ping, Mei An, and Mei Hsia, which were carrying some 800 Chinese employees of Standard Vacuum Oil and their families.

Attack

thumb|Lt Shigeharu Murata, who led the attack on the Panay

On the morning of the 12th, Japanese air forces stationed near Nanjing received information that fleeing Chinese forces were in the area in ten large steamers and a large number of junks and that they were between upstream from Nanjing. Japanese naval aircraft led by Lieutenant Okumiya Masatake and Lieutenant Shigeharu Murata (who would lead torpedo bombers at Pearl Harbor four years later) departed from Changzhou.

While anchored some 28 miles upstream from Nanjing, Panay and her three consorts, came under attack by the Japanese formations. The Panay was clearly marked and identified with two large American flags painted on its canvas awnings. The first bomb split the Panay's foremast and disabled its forward gun. Shrapnel from several of the bombs that exploded near the vessel damaged the ship's hull and injured crew on the deck. Several Americans manned a 30-caliber machine gun on board and returned fire at the Japanese, but did not hit any of the aircraft. Planes also machine-gunned these small boats taking the wounded ashore, and several more survivors were wounded. According to Lieutenant J. W. Geist, an officer aboard Panay, "the day before we told the Japanese army in the area who we were", and three U.S. flags were plainly visible on the ship. The Times correspondent Colin MacDonald, who had also been aboard Panay, saw a Japanese army small boat machine-gun the Panay as it was sinking in spite of the American flag painted on the side of the ship. Since Japanese planes continued to circle overhead, survivors cowered knee-deep in mud in a swamp.

Panay lifeboats were machine-gunned by Japanese fighter planes in the attack. As the ship sank, Japanese colonel Kingoro Hashimoto, who was in the immediate vicinity, ordered his artillery to fire on the Panay. Hashimoto would also order his troops to fire on British vessels whose identities he knew. Forty-three sailors and five civilians were wounded.

thumb|The Panay listing to starboard before sinking

The three Standard Oil tankers were also bombed and destroyed, and the captain of Mei An and many Chinese civilian passengers were killed, although the number was not recorded in Standard Oil's Records. Also lost were two of four smaller company craft elsewhere by Japanese attacks.

thumb|Survivors in a local village, 13 December, one day after the attack

Two newsreel cameramen, Norman Alley of Universal Newsreel and Eric Mayell of Fox Movietone News, were aboard Panay during the attack; they were able to film parts of the attack including Japanese aircraft on low-level strafing runs and, after reaching shore, the sinking of the ship in the middle of the river. The survivors of the attack then waded through knee-deep mud to a nearby village, carrying those too badly wounded to walk.

The Japanese pilots who attacked the Panay would also bomb the British vessel SS Wantung later that same day. The formal apology reached Washington, D.C., on Christmas Eve.

Although Japanese officials maintained that their pilots never saw any American flags on Panay, a US Navy court of inquiry determined that several US flags were clearly visible on the vessel during the attacks. At the meeting held at the American embassy in Tokyo on 23 December, Japanese officials maintained that one navy airplane had attacked a boat by machine gun for a short period of time and that Japanese army motor boats or launches had been attacking the Chinese steamers escaping upstream on the opposite bank. However, the Japanese navy insisted that the attack had been unintentional. The Japanese government paid an indemnity of $2,214,007.36 (approximately $ in ) to the US on 22 April 1938, officially settling the Panay incident.

thumb|[[Universal Newsreel about the incident, 12 December 1937]]

Post-incident

Donations

Following the incident, Japanese individuals and organizations sent letters of apology and gifts of money to U.S. diplomatic offices and the U.S. Navy Department in Washington, D.C. This ranged from letters penned by schoolchildren to organized pools of donors.

The most prominent donor was the America–Japan Society, headed by Prince Tokugawa Iesato, which amassed ¥16,242.56 in Panay contributions from 7,749 people and 218 organizations.

In response to the donations, Secretary of State Cordell Hull stated that "neither the American Government nor any agency of it nor any of its nationals should receive sums of money thus offered or take direct benefit therefrom". However, Hull noted that since "a flat rejection of such offers would produce some misunderstanding of our general attitude and offend those Japanese who make such a gesture, the Department is of the opinion that some method should be found whereby Japanese who wish to give that type of expression to their feelings may do so."

thumb|Fireman First Class John L. Hodge is decorated with the [[Navy Cross for bravery displayed during the sinking of the USS Panay]]

Fireman First Class John L. Hodge and Lieutenant Clark G. Grazier were presented with the Navy Cross for their actions during the Panay incident.

The Navy Cross was also presented to two British naval officers, Vice Admiral Lewis Eyre Crabbe and Lieut. Commander Harry Barlow, for their assistance in recovering survivors from the USS Panay.

Responsibility for the attack

Modern historians believe that the attack may have been intentional.

Newsreel footage captured by the cameramen aboard the Panay showed Japanese aircraft passing so close to the ship that the pilots' faces were visible, which provided "potent evidence" that the Japanese claim of mistaken identity was not true, according to American historian Richard B. Frank. Per Roosevelt's request, Universal Pictures edited the sequence out of its newsreels to quell a political crisis.

The Panay was not the only Western vessel attacked on the Yangtze during the Battle of Nanking. The Japanese pilots responsible for the Panay attack would bomb the British ship SS Wantung on the same afternoon.

Legacy

thumb|Grave at Arlington National Cemetery of Fon Huffman

Fon Huffman, the last survivor of the incident, died in 2008. The last surviving Japanese pilot who participated in the attack was Kaname Harada, who died in 2016.

The episode has been cited by Philip K. Dick in his novel The Man in the High Castle, depicted in a collectible picture-card of the 1940s, in the series Horrors of War with the title "The sinking of the Panay."

The incident features in the 2005 novel A Winter in China by the British writer Douglas Galbraith. It is also described in the historical fiction novel Pearl Harbor by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen.

The 2009 film John Rabe portrays a fictionalized version of the incident.

References

External links

Castle Film – Bombing of USS Panay – USS Panay Sinking
The New York Times - Search
(パネー号事件と日米関係)"The Panay incident and Japan-US relations", in US-Japan War Talks, the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records Japan Center for Asian Historical Records