In recent light of Saudi Arabia and Iran breaking off diplomatic ties I am wondering what happened to diplomats that were in enemy capitals during WWII. What happened to the Japanese diplomats in D.C. after the Pearl Harbor attack? What happened to the German diplomatic staff in Moscow when Germany attacked? What happened to the Soviet diplomats in Berlin in 1941? Were ambassadors and diplomats treated with care or with vindictiveness?
Diplomats had diplomatic immunity that was almost universally respected during world war 2. While they might not have been popular, I don't know any country that did not respect the rules for diplomatic staff and their immunity during ww2.
The country that needed diplomatic personell evacuated from a country it found itself at war with would turn to a neutral third party and ask them to take care of their diplomatic staff. Otherwise, they could simply expect the enemy country to deliver their diplomatic staff to a neutral thrid party.
The German ambassador to the Soviet Union and his staff were interned and transported by the Soviets to Turkey and delivered across the border where they were recieved by Turkish authorities.
The US embassy in Japan was interned and sent on a ship in June 1942 (together with reporters, business men and other US citizens in Japan), picking up British and American consulate and diplomatic staff as well as others from Hong Kong and Saigon on the way. The diplomatic staff was transferred the the Swedish cruise ship Gripsholm, as arranged by Sweden and US authorities (the US paid, Sweden supplied a neutral ship. Some of the interned US citizens had recieved less food and had lost a lot of weight, and it seems the ample stores and good kitchens and staff aboard the Gripsholm was well-recieved.
The Swedish cruise ships Drottningholm and Gripsholm, both belonging to Svenska Amerikalinjen (Swedish American line) conducted no less than 33 repatriation trips during the war to bring diplomatic staff and others back from warring countries.
The Japanese embassy to the US was interned and taken aboard the Gripsholm, travelled to Rio de Janeiro to take aboard more Japanese citizens and met the Japanese ship the Asama Maru outside neutral Portuguese Mozambique to exchange US and British citizens and diplomatic staff for the Japanese ones she carried. She then travelled back by the way of Rio de Janeiro again.
The Japanese embassy in the US
Great anwser
