Toshio Shiratori

Toshio Shiratori (白鳥 敏夫, Shiratori Toshio, June 8, 1887 – June 3, 1949) was the Japanese ambassador to Italy from 1938 to 1940, adviser to the Japanese foreign minister in 1940 and one of the 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni.

Toshio Shiratori
白鳥 敏夫
Toshio Shiratori
Born(1887-06-08)June 8, 1887
Chiba Prefecture, Japan
DiedJune 3, 1949(1949-06-03) (aged 61)
Tokyo, Japan
NationalityJapanese
OccupationAmbassador, Adviser to foreign minister

Shiratori served as Director of Information Bureau under the Foreign Ministry from 1929 to 1933. He served as Ambassador to Sweden and non-resident Ambassador to Finland from 1933 to 1936. Grand Cross of the Royal Swedish Order of the Polar Star 1939. He was appointed ambassador to Italy, serving from 1938 to 1940, and became adviser to the foreign minister in 1940. He was an advocate of military expansionism, counseling an alliance between Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan to facilitate world domination. On 23rd May, 1942, the Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano wrote in his diary that Shiratori had said that, the 'dominion of the world belongs to Japan, the Mikado is the only god on earth, and that both Hitler and Mussolini must become resigned to this reality.'

Shiratori was found guilty of conspiring to wage aggressive war by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in November 1948 and sentenced to life imprisonment.[1] He died in prison of laryngeal cancer in 1949.

On October 17, 1978 Shiratori was one of fourteen Class-A war criminals controversially enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine.[2] A memo from Emperor Hirohito, disclosed in 2006, revealed that he stopped visiting Yasukuni Shrine from 1978 until his death in 1989, because "they even enshrined Matsuoka and Shiratori."[3]

See also

References
  1. "IMTFE Judgement". Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  2. "The 14 Class-A War Criminals Enshrined at Yasukuni". July 19, 2005. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  3. "When Emperor Showa spoke from the heart in his memo". July 24, 2006. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
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