On 12 December 1937 (almost 4 years before Pearl Harbor), Japanese naval aircraft were ordered by their Army to attack "any and all ships" in the Yangtze above Nanking. Knowing of the presence of the USS Panay and her merchantmen, the Imperial Japanese Navy requested verification of the order, which was received before the attack began about 13:27 that day. Although there were several large American flags flown on the ship under the command of Lt. Commander James J. Hughes, as well as one painted atop the cabin, the Japanese planes continued strafing and bombing. Panay was hit by two of the eighteen 60 kg (130 lb) bombs dropped by three Yokosuka B4Y Type-96 bombers and strafed by nine Nakajima A4N Type-95 fighters. The bombing continued until the Panay sank at 15:54. Three sailors were killed, with 43 sailors and five civilian passengers wounded.
Two newsreel cameramen were present on Panay, Norman Alley (Universal News) and Eric Mayell (Movietone News), and were able to take considerable film during the attack and afterward from the shore as the Panay sank in the middle of the river. (The newsreels are now available online at usspanay.org)
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 $33,021,277 today) on 22 April 1938 and the incident officially settled. However, further deterioration of relations between Japan and the United States continued. (source: Wikipedia)
With the benefit of hindsight, it appears that the weak US response to this attack erroneously emboldened the Empire of Japan vis-a-vis US appetite for an all-out war. And they subsequently paid dearly for this geopolitical miscalculation with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
If you see some kind of parallelism with these past events and the on-going potential flashpoints instigated by China in both NE and SE Asia, you are not alone...
America is historically a slow starter, as far as all-out wars are concerned... but once the American War Machine is unleashed, it is virtually unstoppable...
So before Beijing entertains any nasty thoughts on initiating offensive military action against the FON (Freedom of Navigation) operations of Uncle Sam in the Spratlys (as she has been publicly mouthing lately through her Orwellian annoncements), she should revisit the story of the USS Panay... there is a (nuclear) lesson there somewhere...
The USS Panay was named after Panay Island of the Philippines...
