Germany. An Invitation to JapaneseAmbassador Hiroshi Oshima on Occasion of First Anniversary of Re-establishing of the State of Croatia, Apr. 1942. The invitation was presented by the envoy of the “Independent State of Croatia” on occasion of the anniversary of the establishing of the German-controlled Croatian puppet state. It is issued to “His Excellency Hiroshi Oshima and wife”, Japanese ambassador to Germany. The date is April 10, 1942, the venue is the embassy in Grunewald (near Berlin). Measuring 165x106mm, extremely fine condition with minimal scuffing and two punched holes.
Footnote: Hiroshi Oshima was born on April 19, 1886. He served as a general in the Imperial Japanese army. As early as 1934 Oshima was stationed in Berlin as a military attaché. He became the Japanese ambassador to Germany in 1938. Oshima spoke almost perfect German and became a good friend of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, as well as a personal confidante of A.H., resulting in him being awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle in Gold, one of only fifteen men to do so. Oshima obtained vast knowledge about German military plans, communicating them to Japan on a regular basis via the Purple diplomatic cypher. Unbeknownst to the Japanese, however, the Purple cypher had been cracked by American codebreakers in 1940. Thus Oshima involuntarily became a primary and invaluable source of intelligence for the Allies, a fact that he remained unaware of his entire life. After the war, Oshima returned to Japan where he was tried as a war criminal and sentenced to life in prison. However, he was paroled in 1955 and granted clemency in 1958. Oshima died on June 6, 1975.