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d o g f a c e  s o l d i e r   V I P s

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surf section : Jacob Devers || Alexander Patch
Mark W. Clark || Lucian K. Truscott Jr.
Edward H. Brooks || John W. O'Daniel
John E. Dahlquist || William W. Eagles
Jean de Lattre || Sir Harold Alexander
George C. Marshall || Audie L. Murphy
Keith L. Ware || Lucian Adams
Russell E. Dunham || Wilburn K. Ross
John J. Tominac || James P. Connor
David C. Waybur || Otto Skorzeny
HIROSHI OSHIMA
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Hiroshi Oshima - Japanese Military Attache to Berlin WWII
 
 

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Hiroshi Oshima

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HIROSHI OSHIMA (1886-1975)
became a Japanese military attache in Berlin in 1934. He spoke fluent German, and was befriended by Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler's favorite foreign policy advisor and later foreign minister. Oshima became ambassador to Germany in 1938.

Hitler admired the militaristic Japanese and made Oshima a personal confidante. His close relationship with Hitler and Ribbentrop gave him unparalleled diplomatic access to German war plans and national policy.

Oshima made visits to the Russian Front and the Atlantic Wall, and met constantly with Hitler and other Nazi leaders. His fervent adoption of the Nazi's anti-Semitism led him to be called "more Nazi than the Nazis".

His meticulous reports to Tokyo were unknowingly intercepted after American codebreakers deciphered the diplomatic Code Purple in 1940. Among the information gained was the intent to attack Russia, fortification strengths of the Atlantic Wall and the German's befuddlement over the location of the Normandy landings.

In mid-April 1945 he met with Ribbentrop and vowed to stand in Berlin with the leaders of the Third Reich in their hour of crisis. Hitler, however, ordered all diplomats to leave Berlin. Oshima sent his wife to Bad Gastein, a mountain resort in Austria, and then sent most of his Japanese diplomatic staff. The 3rd Division arrested him there in May.

Oshima was brought to Pennsylvania and then returned to Japan. Oshima was charged with war crimes in Japan, brought to trial and was found guilty of conspiring to wage aggressive war. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but was paroled in 1955 and granted clemency in 1958. Oshima died in 1975 reportedly never knowing of his contribution to Allied intelligence.

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