The Panay Incident; Prelude to Pearl Harbor

xviii, [2], 295, [3] pages. Illustrated endpaper. Introduction by Luigi Barzini. Map. Illustrations. Footnote. Appendix. Index. The author came to Princeton from the Darrow School, and became associate editor of The Daily Princetonian. During World War II, he spent three years in the Navy on torpedo boats, including at the Normandy invasion (PT-510). He was discharged with two battle stars with combat commendations. Darby began his career in 1949 as a crime reporter with The Florida Times-Union, then moved to New York. He became the publisher of American Heritage magazine and retired in 1987 as publisher of The Franklin Library. He wrote numerous magazine articles and six nonfiction books on history, two of which were selected by major book clubs. He arranged to have the archives of George Braziller Inc. donated to the Special Collections of the Princeton University Library. Derived from a Kirkus review: The gunboat Panay was the U.S. Navy's first casualty of World War II. The sinking of the Panay along with three commercial tankers occurred in 1937 on the Yangtze River. It has never been known exactly why the Japanese pilots attacked. The author presents a remarkably vivid recreation of the incident: the horrendous bombing at close range, the order to abandon ship, the journey inland for medicine and supplies, the diplomatic and political repercussions. The data is scrupulously assembled from films and news reports (there were foreign correspondents-on board), official documents, and interviews with Japanese and American participants. Perry presents the case for the several theories: Japanese interservice rivalry, an unfortunate blunder, an intentional slight to the United States. Finally, Japan apologized, paid more than two million in reparation and delayed World War II. The USS Panay incident was a Japanese attack on the American gunboat Panay while it was anchored in the Yangtze River outside Nanking (now spelled Nanjing), China on 12 December 1937. Like the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor four years later, Japan and the United States were not at war at the time. The Japanese claimed that they did not see the US flags painted on the deck of the gunboat, apologized, and paid an indemnity. Nevertheless, the attack and the subsequent Allison incident in Nanking caused U.S. opinion to turn against the Japanese. According to Lieutenant J.W. Geist, an officer aboard the 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. Planes also machine-gunned small boats taking the wounded ashore, and several additional survivors were wounded. The Times correspondent Colin MacDonald, who had also been aboard the 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. As a result of the attack, Panay sank; Storekeeper First Class Charles L. Ensminger, Standard Oil tanker captain Carl H. Carlson and Italian reporter Sandro Sandri were killed, Coxswain Edgar C. Hulsebus died later that night. 43 sailors and five civilians were wounded. The aftermath of the Panay sinking was a nervous time for the American ambassador to Japan, Joseph C. Grew. Grew, whose experience in the foreign service spanned over 30 years, "remembered the Maine," the U.S. Navy ship that blew up in Havana Harbor in 1898. The sinking of Maine had propelled the U.S. into the SpanishAmerican War, and Grew hoped the sinking of Panay would not be a similar catalyst for the severance of diplomatic ties and war with Japan. The Japanese government took full responsibility for sinking Panay but continued to maintain that the attack had been unintentional. Chief of Staff of Japanese naval forces in northern China, Vice Admiral Rokuzo Sugiyama, was assigned to make an apology. The formal apology reached Washington, D.C. on Chr.…