Panay Incident
Pablo Robledo
Panay incident
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Panay was hit by two of the eighteen 132 lb (60 kg) bombs dropped by three
Yokosuka B4Y Type-96 bombers and strafed by nine Nakajima A4N Type-
95 fighters
Date and location
● Yangtze River outside Nanking (now known as Nanjing), China
● 12 December 1937
Photos of the Incident
USS Panay (PR-5)
Was a river gunboat that served on the
Yangtze Patrol in China until sunk by
Japanese aircraft on 12 December 1937 on
the Yangtze River.
Service History
Built for duty in the Asiatic Fleet on the Yangtze River, Panay had as her
primary mission the protection of American lives and property frequently
threatened in the disturbances that the 1920s and 1930s brought to a China
struggling to modernize, create a strong central government, and later counter
Japanese aggression. Panay was assigned as station ship to guard the
remaining Americans and take them off at the last moment.
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 New York Times's Norman
Soong, Collier's Weekly correspondent Jim Marshall, La Stampa
correspondent Sandro Sandri and Corriere della Sera correspondent Luigi
Barzini jr.
Awards
● Navy Expeditionary Medal
● Yangtze Service Medal
● China Service Medal
After the incident
A formal protest was immediately lodged by the American
ambassador. The Japanese government accepted responsibility, but
insisted the attack was unintentional. They claimed that the pilots
could not distinguish between Chinese and American flags from the
distance of 300 or more yards that the pilots attacked. A large
indemnity was paid (approximately $2,000,000, which is equal to
$33,508,274 today) on 22 April 1938 and the incident was officially
settled; however, further deterioration of relations between Japan
and the United States continued.