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The USS ''Panay'' incident was a Japanese attack on the American gunboat while it was anchored in the Yangtze River outside Nanking (now spelled Nanjing), China on 12 December 1937. Japan and the United States were not at war at the time. The Japanese claimed that they did not see the American flags painted on the deck of the gunboat, apologized, and paid an indemnity. Nevertheless, the attack and the subsequent Allison incident in Nanking caused US opinion to turn against the Japanese. Fon Huffman, the last survivor of the incident, died in 2008. ==Incident== 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 moved in on the city of Nanking (now known as Nanjing) in December. ''Panay'' evacuated the remaining Americans from the city on 11 December, bringing the number of people aboard to five officers, 54 enlisted men, four US embassy staff, and 10 civilians, including Universal News cameraman Norman Alley, Movietone News’ Eric Mayell, the '' On the morning of the 12th, the Japanese air forces received information that fleeing Chinese forces were in the area in ten large steamers and a large number of junks and that they were at a point about upstream from Nanking. While anchored upstream from Nanking, ''Panay'' and three Standard Oil tankers, ''Mei Ping'', ''Mei An'' and ''Mei Hsia'', came under attack from Japanese naval aircraft. ''Panay'' was hit by two of the eighteen bombs dropped by three Yokosuka B4Y Type-96 bombers and strafed by nine Nakajima A4N Type-95 fighters. 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 American flags were plainly visible on the ship. Planes also machine-gunned small boats taking the wounded ashore, and several additional survivors were wounded. ''Times of London'' 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.〔''The Oregonian'', Saturday, December 18, 1937. page 24.〕 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 three Standard Oil tankers were also bombed and destroyed, and the captain of ''Mei An'' and many Chinese civilian passengers were killed. The vessels had been helping to evacuate the families of Standard Oil's employees and agents from Nanking during the Japanese attack on that city.〔Mender, P., Thirty Years a Mariner in the Far East 1907–1937, The Memoirs of Peter Mender,a Standard Oil ship captain on China's Yangtze River, ISBN 978-1-60910-498-6.〕 Two newsreel cameramen were aboard during the attack (Norman Alley of Universal News and Eric Mayell of Movietone News); they were able to film part of the attack and, after reaching shore, the sinking of the ship in the middle of the river. Survivors were later taken aboard the American vessel and the British gunboats and . Earlier the same day, a Japanese shore battery had fired on ''Ladybird''. The survivors coped with near freezing nights in inadequate clothing and with no food. It took three days to move the sixteen wounded to the safety of several British and American ships.〔Yangtze Patrol: The U.S. Navy in China. Kemp Tolley. Naval Institute Press, Mar 22, 2013〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Panay incident」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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