HIROSHI OSHIMA1891 – June 1975
Hiroshi Ōshima was born in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, in 1891. He was a prominent Japanese military officer and diplomat, best known for serving as Japan’s ambassador to Germany during the era of the Axis alliance in World War II.
Ōshima was fluent in German and developed strong ties with the German military and leadership, particularly during his two terms as ambassador in Berlin (1938–1939 and 1941–1945). He was a fervent supporter of closer Japanese-German cooperation and played a crucial role in the Tripartite Pact. Ōshima acted as an important liaison between the Japanese Empire and the German Reich, often communicating strategic military and political information.
Notably, his diplomatic dispatches—intercepted and decrypted by Allied intelligence through the American MAGIC program—provided crucial insights into Axis strategies and Germany’s war planning, making him an unwittingly valuable source of intelligence for the Allies.
After the war, Hiroshi Ōshima was arrested and tried for war crimes. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East but was paroled in 1955.
He died in June 1975.
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