Toshio Shiratori

Who was Toshio Shiratori?

Toshio Shiratori 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.

He served as Director of Information Bureau under the Foreign Ministry from 1929 to 1933. 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.

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. 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.