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Question on the Japanese consultate in London

Hans

Philosopher
Hans
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
9,279
In WWII when was this closed and where did the Japanese staff go to? (if not to Japan)
 
Jeez... I've been waiting hours for someone to pop the answer to this.

No condemnations, never thought about it... just an interesting question.
(World history is vast, we can't get pissy over everything.)
 
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If you can find the name of a staff member, you can check to see if they were interned at any of the internment camps on the Isle of Man here: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/internees/ though the records are not complete.

The Ambassador to the UK, Mamoru Shigemitsu was recalled to Japan in 1941 but so far I haven't found what happened to the staff.

Or you could ask the Japanese Embassy in London if they have any information, or could point you to someone who could answer your question: http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/itprtop_en/index.html.

While looking for information I found this article which implies that the UK held some Japanese POWs and swapped them for a couple of British citizens who were in Japan.

My grandfather was interned in Japan and enslaved to build a railway, but unlike many he was lucky enough to survive and return to the UK.
 
As to when, I presume Dec 7,1941 after Japan bombed Hong Kong and Malaya in addition to Pearl Harbor.
 
I'd be surprised if anything non-traditional happened to them. Even Hitler honored the traditions and let Allied diplomatic staff leave, but put them up first in hotels. (The Swedes were the mechanism from Germany. There was at least one American who got sealifted out as late as the end of '42.)

Thing is, for Japan (from London), they probably had to get to Lisbon. There was no safe route to Japan from western Europe. I think some of the names that show up in the Peace Party in Berlin, The Vatican and Rome were originally stationed in London, so maybe they just made their ways to the continent and filled various functions there.

To my knowledge no one arrested or imprisoned any diplomatic corps members during the war. There was one nasty incident towards the end of the war where the Japanese troops in Manila attacked the Spanish embassy for some reason, doing all sorts of Japanese Occupation Traditional nastiness, but that's the only one I've heard of.
 
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Foolmewunz said:
Thing is, for Japan (from London), they probably had to get to Lisbon. There was no safe route to Japan from western Europe.
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Could they have been shipped home through the USSR? The British had viable shipping routes to the USSR throughout the war, but the Soviets were neutral in the Pacific War until the last few weeks.
 
crescent said:
Could they have been shipped home through the USSR? The British had viable shipping routes to the USSR throughout the war, but the Soviets were neutral in the Pacific War until the last few weeks.
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Might have, but by Dec. '41 and early '42, that option was far more limited. Other than pockets of forced neutrality, Germany controlled western Europe, but getting to Moscow might prove a bit difficult. And as I said, I'm pretty sure that some of the diplomates in Europe in '45 were the same as those from '40 and '41. The Japanese didn't have a massive cadre of diplomats to fall back on, and I think keeping them in Europe made sense. The "players" in the so-called "Peace Party" were largely the diplomatic corps in Moscow, Geneva, The Vatican and Berlin.
 
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