to join her, together with most of the Japanese diplomatic staff. Less than a month later, Germany surrendered and Ōshima and his staff were taken into custody. They were then deported from Austria to the United States by ship, arriving on 11 July 1945. After interrogation and internment in Bedford Springs Hotel, a resort hotel in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania, Ōshima was returned to Japan in November 1945. Although he enjoyed freedom briefly in his devastated country, he was arrested on 16 December 1945 and charged with war crimes. He initially denied ever being close to Hitler and Ribbentrop. When brought before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, he was found guilty of conspiring to wage aggressive war on 12 November 1948 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Ōshima was paroled in late 1955 and granted clemency three years later. After his release, Ōshima lived in seclusion in Chigasaki, Kanagawa, refusing invitations from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to enter into politics, in stark contrast to Nomura, the former Japanese ambassador to the United States, who was elected to several terms in the Diet after the war. The former ambassador even refused requests for interviews and lectures, but his few remarks make clear that Oshima was a broken, remorseful old man. He called himself A failure who misled the nation and admitted that the Japanese alliance with Germany which he promoted was a catastrophic mistake, although his admiration for Hitler as a political leader never seems to have diminished. A neighbour recognised a photograph of the Japanese ambassador and Hitler shaking hands, possibly the photo seen above, in Oshima's living room. Ōshima died in 1975, never knowing that he had provided the Allies with invaluable intelligence during the war. Decorations 1938 - Order of the Sacred Treasure, 2nd class 1940 - Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun 1940 - Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the German Eagle in Gold with Star See also German-Japanese relations List of Japanese ministers, envoys and ambassadors to Germany References Further reading External links "Heinrich Georg Stahmer and Hiroshi Ōshima", Nippon News, No. 18. in the official website of NHK. . Owen Cunningham papers at the University of Maryland libraries. Cunningham was a defense attorney during the trial of Hiroshi Oshima, and these papers contain legal documents related to the trial. 1886 births 1975 deaths