Gunboat Diplomacy

 

   On this day in 1937, The U.S. gunboat Panay was sunk by Japanese fighter planes in the Yangtze River. What in the world was an American warship doing on a Chinese river? And even if it was there, why did the Japanese sink it? The U.S. wouldn't be at war with Japan for another four years.

   The Panay was part of the U.S. Navy's Asiatic Fleet. Like several other European nations, it had gunboats on Chinese rivers to protect it's interests and its citizens who were there as diplomats, missionaries and businessmen. Not all Chinese approved of this situation and there had been uprisings against the "foreign devils." 

   China itself was a mess at the time. The old empire had collapsed and the new republic was trying to establish itself. There were bandits and rogue soldiers roaming the countryside and the gunboats were necessary to provide security.

   The Panay had been ordered by the Navy and built in Shanghai ten years earlier. She was 191' long and had two 50 caliber guns and eight machine guns. She accompanied U.S. merchant ships up and down the Yangtze. In the summer of 1937, the Japanese army invaded China. By December 11, the army had taken Nanking, then China's capital.

   The Panay evacuated staff from the U.S. embassy then moved upriver to get away from the fighting. The captain of the Panay notified the Japanese commander in Nanking of his movement. On December 12, The Japanese commander ordered his Air Force to sink all ships upriver from Nanking. The fighter pilots knew about the American ships and checked for confirmation. "Sink all ships.”

   Thirteen Japanese aircraft bombed and strafed the Panay for two hours until she sank. The planes also strafed the lifeboats as they left the ship. Amazingly, only three people aboard the ship were killed, though 48 were wounded.

   The U.S. lodged a formal protest. Japan accepted full responsibility saying the attack had been unintentional. Japan claimed its pilots had been unable to see the three U.S. flags on the ship or the flags painted on the sides of the ship. The Japanese paid an indemnity of thirty-six million dollars in today's money and the incident was forgotten.

   The Panay sank on the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the U.S. ironclad warship Cairo on the Yazoo River in Mississippi during the Civil War. Yangtze means long river in Chinese. Yazoo is the name of a now extinct tribe who once lived along the river.

The beautiful Yangtze