214	CHINA  INCIDENT
suit-cases so that the diaries can be packed at a moment's notice and
easily transported by hand to the ship in case we have to leave Japan
suddenly. I do not think that such a contingency is by any means
unlikely.
Hardly had the reverberations of the Panay incident begun to die
down when news came of the utter ruthlessness of the invading
Japanese forces in Nanking and their wanton violation of American
rights, including the looting of American homes and the desecration
of the American flag, which, in numerous cases, was torn down,
burned, and otherwise mutilated. Chinese were apparently murdered
more or less indiscriminately, while many Chinese women were
raped. Of course the Japanese have an answer for everything. With
regard to the desecration of the American flag they say that the
Chinese were themselves using it to protect their property, but that
does not explain why no attention was paid to the certificates in the
Japanese language signed by our Consul-General and posted on
bona fide American property. As for the cases of rape, they say that
hundreds of professional Chinese women had fled from the public
houses of prostitution and that the soldiers were merely bringing
them back to carry on their usual commerce, and, anyway, that the
reports which we had received came through missionaries who were
merely quoting their Chinese employees and had not themselves
witnessed'the incidents of which they complained,
I was told that what the Japanese really wanted was that the
Chinese families and shopkeepers who had fled should return and
settle down peacefully to their customary occupations, but ' my
informant was somewhat at a loss for a reply to my observation
that in the face of the reports of wholesale executions, murders, and
cases of rape it was perhaps not surprising that the Chinese inhabi-
tants, especially those who had daughters, should be a little chary
about returning. In fact, my informant went so far as to say that
he could understand their attitude.
JAPAN OPPOSES BRITAIN AND APPRAISES AMERICA
March 31, 1938
Life to us in the Embassy under present circumstances represents
a cinder track with a series of hurdles. There is a good deal of satis-
faction as each is surmounted, but we do not'delude ourselves by
supposing that the final hurdle will ever be reached. New ones are
constantly appearing. Under ordinary conditions these hurdles
would be far more difficult than they are, simply because the Japanese
Government at present has the urge to avoid unnecessary friction
with our Government and people ; it knows that it has and will
probably continue to have plenty of trouble on its hands and it is
not deliberately courting more trouble than the military machine
presents it with, We therefore enjoy at present a certain degree of