December 12, 1937: The Japanese Sneak Attack on the U.S. Navy

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U.S.S. Panay (PR-5)

Although hardly remembered today, the name U.S.S. Panay is an honorable one in U.S. Navy lore. The first Panay was a gunboat acquired from the Spanish in 1899 after the Spanish-American War. It served in the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, was based in the Philippines, and counted sailors named Chester Nimitz and John McCain, both of whom would become Admirals, among its crew rosters.

 

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Admiral John McCain I, both served as young sailors on the first Panay

The third Panay started out as a support ship named Midway. It saw action in World War II. After the Battle of Midway in 1942, the vessel was renamed Panay and the name Midway was given to one of the aircraft carriers soon under construction during the naval build-up that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor. 

The second Panay was fated to be the most famous. She was a river gunboat belonging to the U.S. Asiatic Fleet.* Built in 1927, she was one of the newer vessels of that fleet. At just under 200 feet long and less than 500 tons, with a crew of 59 men, and capable of making fifteen knots, she was a slow-moving shallow-draft craft lightly armed with two fifty caliber machine guns and eight .30 caliber  machine guns. 

Panay was assigned to the Yangtze River in China, and tasked with protecting American merchant shipping and American citizens from the depredations of Chinese warlords, bandits, pirates, and other hostile elements that navigated the river. In the 1930s this included the Japanese. As a deterrent to attack, she routinely flew oversized American flags and had the Stars and Stripes painted upon her cabin top. This did not impress either bandits or pirates, and she was in continuous but light combat action throughout her career. She lost no crewmen on these missions.

The Rape of Nanking, committed by Japanese troops occupying the Chinese “southern capital” began in December 1937 and lasted until February 1938. A period of never-before-seen brutality, at least 300,000 civilians were killed and at least that many rapes were committed. The numbers of dead and brutalized, but not the torment, would be dwarfed by Nazi atrocities which were just then gathering momentum in Europe. This image speaks for itself

In November of 1937, Panay began aiding Western civilians fleeing the Rape of Nanking, and acted as an armed escort for American merchant ships bringing petroleum upriver to China’s quickly-established inland interim capital. For several weeks the Japanese did not trouble her in this task.

 

Bombing of the USS Panay

On December 12, 1937, Panay was moving slowly up the river with a full count of crew and refugees when a flight of Japanese “Jean” biplane bombers came overhead and scored two direct bombing hits on the vessel. Before the stunned crew could take to the guns, the ship was strafed repeatedly by Nakijima A4N carrier-based biplane fighters. The Japanese aircraft broke off suddenly, but then returned to the attack after a brief lull. The Panay sank at 3:54 P.M. local time. Three civilians and two crew were killed. 43 sailors and five civilians were injured. 

A “Jean” in flight

Several journalists were aboard and captured newsreel footage of the attack. As soon as the newsreel footage reached the States, the American ambassador to Japan was directed to lodge a harsh formal protest. The Japanese Government accepted responsibility for the attack, belatedly announced its new “unrestricted warfare” policy in China, and then rather lamely claimed first that their combat pilots did not see the Stars and Stripes flying on the Panay. However, in both photos and film of the incident Old Glory is obvious. The story then shifted, officials in Tokyo afterward claiming that the attacking pilots did not know the difference between the American and Chinese flags.

The China Lobby and the “Eastern Establishment,” along with many cosmopolitan Americans, decried what was described as a “sneak attack” and called for war against Japan. Western and Southern isolationist elements tamped down the war fever. The Japanese Government quickly paid the U.S. two million dollars (about $35,000,000.00 today) for the loss of the Panay, and by April 1938 the incident had been forgotten except by those who survived or the families of those who died.

Like much else in the Asiatic Fleet, decorations were improvised. The Fleet Medal was given out for everything from inter-unit boxing championships to heroism under fire

*The United States Asiatic Fleet traces its proud ancestry back to 1854 and the “black fleet” of Commodore Perry who opened Japan to U.S. trade.  The Asiatic Fleet was formally established just after the Spanish-American War of 1898 in order to protect the new American possessions of the Philippines, Guam, and Samoa. It was also tasked with protecting American interests in China and other Far Eastern nations. It was never a large fleet, and many of its vessels were smaller and older craft, some otherwise obsolescent. It also had a tiny Naval Aviation arm. To an extent, the Asiatic Fleet acted as a last posting for senior naval officers who were reaching retirement age. Ironically, this made the Asiatic Fleet top-heavy with gold braid and it had significant national and international status. Its Admiral Commanding (always a full Admiral) could countermand decisions of the various State Department officials in the region, including Ambassadors. On December 8, 1941 (December 7^th on the U.S. mainland) many of the Asiatic Fleet’s vessels were attacked with a larger loss rate overall than Pearl Harbor. By mid-1942, the Asiatic Fleet had only 19 ships left. It was dissolved as a unit, and its ships joined the new 7^th Fleet.