was the Japanese

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

from 1938 to 1940, adviser to the

Japanese foreign minister The is a member of the cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The minister is responsible for implementing Japan’s foreign policy and is also a statutory member of the National Security Counc ...

in 1940, and one of the 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined at

Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, 1894–1895 and 1937–1945 re ...

. 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, the Grand Cross of the Royal Swedish Order of the Polar Star granted to him in 1939. He was appointed ambassador to Italy, serving from 1938 to 1940, and became adviser to foreign minister

Yōsuke Matsuoka was a Japanese diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan during the early stages of World War II. He is best known for his defiant speech at the League of Nations in February 1933, ending Japan's participation in the organ ...

in 1940. He was an advocate of military expansionism, counseling an alliance between

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, Italy and Japan to facilitate world domination. On 23 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 ''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Sa ...

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 The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conve ...

in November 1948 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison of

laryngeal cancer Laryngeal cancers are mostly squamous-cell carcinomas, reflecting their origin from the epithelium of the larynx. Cancer can develop in any part of the larynx. The prognosis is affected by the location of the tumour. For the purposes of stagin ...

in 1949. On October 17, 1978 Shiratori was one of fourteen Class-A war criminals controversially enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine. A memo from

Emperor Shōwa Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

, disclosed in 2006, revealed that he stopped visiting Yasukuni Shrine from 1978 until his death in 1989, because "they even enshrined Matsuoka and Shiratori."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiratori, Toshio 1887 births 1949 deaths People convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East Ambassadors of Japan to Italy Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by international courts and tribunals Japanese prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Japanese people convicted of the international crime of aggression Japanese people who died in prison custody People from Chiba Prefecture Members of the House of Representatives (Empire of Japan) Ambassadors of Japan to Sweden Ambassadors of Japan to Finland Japanese people convicted of war crimes University of Tokyo alumni Japanese politicians convicted of crimes

See also

References