entity on 8 May 1945. The diplomatic staffs of neutral countries still in Germany were thus recalled, while those of countries at war with the Allies (most notably Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Ōshima and his legation) were taken prisoner by the Allies. The Empire of Japan, which after the German surrender was effectively the only remaining Axis belligerent, had already denounced the German surrender and the Flensburg government and seized the German embassy in Tokyo and seven U-boats. Henceforward, although the Flensburg government had a nominated Minister for Foreign Affairs, it had no access to the diplomatic assets of the former German state and was not accorded diplomatic recognition by any of the former protecting powers, the other remaining neutral countries or any of its erstwhile allies in the Far East (i.e. the Japanese Empire and the puppet regimes still functioning under its control). On 5 May Schwerin von Krosigk had dispatched Walter Schellenberg to Sweden as a personal emissary via Folke Bernadotte, hoping to establish diplomatic relations and to expedite a partial surrender of German forces in Norway. This mission was overtaken by the general capitulation of all German forces, and following 8 May all further approaches from the Flensburg Government to Sweden were ignored. Former armaments minister Albert Speer suggested that after the surrender the Flensburg government should dissolve itself. Instead Dönitz and his ministers chose to continue in hope of presiding over post-war Germany as a provisional government. Even though they could exercise no direct territorial authority, the cabinet still met daily at 10.00 a.m. Various papers on post-war reconstruction issues were proposed to be prepared, but the Western Allies showed no sign that they might receive them. Otherwise much time was devoted to discussion of how far the symbols, medals and insignia of the Hitler regime should be retained within the Flensburg headquarters. Nazi war crimes Some acknowledgement of Nazi war crimes became unavoidable. The departure of the SS leadership from Flensburg opened the way for the Dönitz government to offer its own version of how the murder squads, concentration camps and killing facilities had come into being. Their response was that all these atrocities had been undertaken in secret, and entirely by Himmler and the SS. Dönitz and Jodl issued a joint public statement "that neither the German Wehrmacht nor the German people had knowledge of these things." While this statement was mostly untrue, the consequent