Sir Arthur Henry Hugh Cortazzi, (2 May 1924 – 14 August 2018) was a British diplomat. He was also a distinguished international businessman, academic, author and prominent Japanologist. He was Ambassador from the United Kingdom to Japan (1980–84), President of the Asiatic Society of Japan (1982–1983) and Chairman of the Japan Society of London (1985–95). Early life Cortazzi was educated at Sedbergh School, St Andrews University and University of London. He served in the Royal Air Force from 1943 to 1947, serving in Britain and India, and later elsewhere in Asia. He began in the RAF as an Aircraftman 2nd Class and was assigned to a six-month crash course in Japanese, taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies. After completion of the course Cortazzi was sent out to India to the headquarters of the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre in Delhi just as the war was coming to an end. He as assigned to Number 5 Mobile Section but was then posted to Singapore as the personal interpreter of General Miles Dempsey, the commander of the 14th Army. In 1946 he conducted many interrogations and produced translations of wartime documents in Singapore. In June 1946, he was posted to the British Commonwealth Air Contingent of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force and was based in Iwakuni. There he considered that the tasks he was given to undertake were of little value. Cortazzi was granted a wartime commission in the rank of Pilot Officer in June 1945. He was promoted to Flying Officer in December 1945, and left the service in 1947, after which he joined the Foreign Office. In 1998 Cortazzi published his autobiography, Japan and Back, and Places Elsewhere. Diplomatic career After the War, the British Foreign Office posted Cortazzi to Singapore (1950–1951) and to Tokyo (1951–1954). After returning to Whitehall (1954–1958), he was posted to Bonn (1958–1960). Another stint in Tokyo (1961–1965) preceded his return to London (1965–1966). Another posting in Tokyo (1966–1970) was followed by a different kind of opportunity at the Royal College of Defence Studies (1971–1972), after which he was posted to Washington, D.C. (1972–1975). In 1975, Cortazzi was appointed Deputy Under-Secretary of State. The next few years in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1975–1980) preceded his appointment as Her Majesty's Ambassador to Japan in 1980. In 1980, Sir Hugh was elevated to the rank of Knight Commander the Most Distinguished Order of St