When was the Imperial Japanese Navy formed?
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
On 26 March 1868, the first Naval Review was held in Japan (in Osaka Bay), with 6 ships from the private domainal navies of Saga, Chōshū, Satsuma, Kurume, Kumamoto and Hiroshima participating. The total tonnage of these ships was 2,252 tons, far smaller than the tonnage of the single foreign vessel (from the French Navy) that also participated. In July 1869, the Imperial Japanese Navy was formally established, two months after the last military engagement of the Boshin War – the private navies of the Japanese nobles were abolished and their 11 ships were added to the 7 surviving vessels of the defunct Tokugawa "bakufu" navy, including , Japan's first steam warship. This formed the core of the new Imperial Japanese Navy.
Imperial Japanese Navy Aviation Bureau
The of the Ministry of the Navy of Japan was responsible for the development and training of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service. In 1941 it was headed by Vice-Admiral Katagiri and was organized as follows:
Fighter units of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force
During the Imperial period until 1945 the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy had operated their own air services, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. There was no independent Imperial Japanese Air Force. During the post-war occupation from 1945–1952 there was no Japanese military, with security for the country being provided by the occupation forces. Even afterwards, US forces based in the country continued to provide security for Japan.
Battle of the Yalu River (1904)
After the success of the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Chemulpo Bay on 9 February 1904, the way was clear for the Imperial Japanese Army to deploy the 2nd, the 12th, and the Guards Divisions of the Japanese 1st Army, commanded by Major-General Baron Tamemoto Kuroki, into Korea. The total strength of Japanese force was about 42,500 men. The Japanese 1st Army advanced quickly northwards from Chemulpo (modern Incheon), with advance units entering Pyongyang on 21 February 1904 and Anju by 18 March 1904. Learning their lessons in logistics and transport from the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army hired some 10,000 local laborers at wages well above the local norms, and paid also for any food and supplies procured locally. This contrasted greatly with the behavior of the Russian troops previously in northern Korea.
Six-six fleet
The Six-Six fleet was shipbuilding program initiated by Imperial Japanese Navy in the wake of the First Sino-Japanese war and the Triple Intervention. It was the brainchild of Yamamoto Gombei who would later become the Minister of the Navy and the eighth Prime Minister of Japan.The completion of the plan led to the emergence of Japan as a first-class naval power. Whereas during the First Sino-Japanese War, they had gone into the conflict with a makeshift force of warships, the Japanese would now have a true battle fleet.
Imperial Japanese Navy
The "Meiji" government issued its First Naval Expansion bill in 1882, requiring the construction of 48 warships, of which 22 were to be torpedo boats. The naval successes of the French Navy against China in the Sino-French War of 1883–85 seemed to validate the potential of torpedo boats, an approach which was also attractive to the limited resources of Japan. In 1885, the new Navy slogan became "Kaikoku Nippon" (Jp:海国日本, "Maritime Japan").
Kure Naval District
The location of Kure within the sheltered Inland Sea of Japan was recognized of strategic importance in controlling the sea lanes around western Japan by the Meiji government and early Imperial Japanese Navy. With the formation of the navy in 1886, Japan was divided into five naval districts for recruiting and supply. During the administrative re-organization of the Japanese Navy in 1889, Kure was designated as the “Second Naval District” (第二海軍区, "dai-ni kaigunku"), and its harbor was dredged, a breakwater constructed and docking facilities for warships were established. The following year, work began on the Kure Naval Arsenal, which would eventually expand to become one of the largest shipyards in Japan for the construction of large capital ships. The facilities of Kure Naval District included armories, production factories for torpedoes, naval mines and naval artillery (and associated ammunition), and also a naval hospital and training centers.
Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
The Yokosuka Naval District was established at Yokosuka, Kanagawa in 1884, as the first of the naval districts responsible for the defense of the Japanese home islands, and the Yokosuka Shipyards was renamed the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in 1903. Japan had purchased five submarines from the American Electric Boat Company during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. These Holland Type VII submarines were built by Arthur Leopold Busch as he traveled to Japan during this time. Mr. Busch was a naval architect and shipbuilder who represented the newly organized company (Electric Boat Company) now located at the Quincy Massachusett's shipyard known as the Fore River Ship and Engine Company. These first five submarines became Japan's (IJN) initial entry into the theater of underwater warfare that began nearly the same time as the outbreak of the war. Another representative of Electric Boat, Frank Cable, an electrician working for Isaac L. Rice's company trained two Japanese crews in the operation of such craft.
Ise-class battleship
In the aftermath, the Japanese Empire immediately turned its focus to the two remaining rivals for imperial dominance in the Pacific Ocean: Britain and the United States. Satō Tetsutarō, a Japanese Navy admiral and military theorist, speculated that conflict would inevitably arise between Japan and at least one of its two main rivals. To that end, he called for the Japanese Navy to maintain a fleet with at least 70% as many capital ships as the US Navy. This ratio, Satō theorized, would enable the Imperial Japanese Navy to defeat the US Navy in one major battle in Japanese waters in any eventual conflict. Accordingly, the 1907 Imperial Defence Policy called for the construction of a battle fleet of eight modern battleships, each, and eight modern armoured cruisers, each. This was the genesis of the Eight-Eight Fleet Program, the development of a cohesive battle line of sixteen capital ships.
Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II
During 1943 the Allies were able to reorganize their forces and American industrial strength began to turn the tide of the war. American forces ultimately managed to gain the upper hand through a vastly greater industrial output and a modernization of its air and naval forces. In 1943, the Japanese also turned their attention to the defensive perimeters of their previous conquests. Forces on Japanese held islands in Micronesia were to absorb and wear down an expected American counteroffensive. However, American industrial power become apparent and the military forces that faced the Japanese in 1943 were so overwhelming in firepower and equipment, that from the end of 1943 to 1944 Japan's defensive perimeter failed to hold. Defeat at the Philippine Sea was a disaster for Japanese naval air power with American pilots terming it, the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot", while the battle of Leyte Gulf led to the destruction of a large part of the surface fleet. Consequently, the Japanese lost control of the Western Pacific. During the last phase of the war, the Japanese resorted to a series of desperate measures, including a variety of Special Attack Units which were popularly called "kamikaze". By May 1945, most of the Imperial Japanese Navy had been sunk and the remnants had taken refuge in Japan's harbors. By July 1945, all but one of its capital ships had been sunk in raids by the United States Navy. At the end of the war, the IJN had lost 334 warships and 300,386 officers and men.
Empire of Japan
Japan's armed forces initially achieved large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and the Pacific War. However, after many Allied victories and following the Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan and invasion of Manchuria, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Empire surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, and a new constitution was created with American involvement in 1947, officially bringing the Empire of Japan to an end. Occupation and reconstruction continued until 1952, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the "State of Japan" in Japanese (simply rendered "Japan" in English).
Japanese battleship Asahi
Combat experience in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 convinced the Imperial Japanese Navy of weaknesses in the Jeune École naval philosophy, which emphasized torpedo boats and commerce raiding to offset expensive heavily armoured ships. Therefore, Japan promulgated a ten-year naval build-up in early 1896, to modernize and expand its fleet in preparation for further confrontations, with the construction of six battleships and six armoured cruisers at its core. These ships were paid for from the £30,000,000 indemnity paid by China after losing the First Sino-Japanese War. As with the earlier and es, Japan lacked the technology and capability to construct its own battleships, and turned again to the United Kingdom for the four remaining battleships of the programme. "Asahi", the fifth Japanese battleship to be built in Britain, was ordered from the Clydebank Engineering & Shipbuilding Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland in the 1897 annual naval programme.
Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II
Japan put particular emphasis on aircraft carriers. The Imperial Japanese Navy started the Pacific War with 10 aircraft carriers, the largest and most modern carrier fleet in the world at that time. There were seven American aircraft carriers at the beginning of hostilities, only three operating in the Pacific; and eight British aircraft carriers, of which a single one operated in the Indian Ocean. A large number of these Japanese carriers were of small size, however, in accordance with the limitations placed upon the Navy by the London and Washington Naval Conferences. Nonetheless the Japanese initially had the upper hand over the American and British, by grouping all of their fleet carriers into a single unit known as the 1st Air Fleet or Kidō Butai ("Mobile Force"). In the Kidō Butai, the two -class carriers were superior to any carrier in the world, until the wartime appearance of the American "Essex" class.
Imperial Japanese Navy
During 1873, a plan to invade the Korean Peninsula, the "Seikanron" proposal made by Saigō Takamori, was narrowly abandoned by decision of the central government in Tokyo. In 1874, the Taiwan expedition was the first foray abroad of the new Imperial Japanese Navy and Army after the Mudan Incident of 1871, however the navy served largely as a transport force.
Imperial Japanese Navy
Following a further request by the British and the initiation of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany, in March 1917, the Japanese sent a special force to the Mediterranean. This force, consisted of one protected cruiser, as flotilla leader and eight of the Navy's newest destroyers (, , , , , , , and ), under Admiral Satō Kōzō, was based in Malta and efficiently protected allied shipping between Marseille, Taranto, and ports in Egypt until the end of the War. In June, "Akashi" was replaced by , and four more destroyers were added ("Kashi", "Hinoki", "Momo", and "Yanagi"). They were later joined by the cruiser . By the end of the war, the Japanese had escorted 788 allied transports. One destroyer, "Sakaki", was torpedoed on 11 June 1917 by a German submarine with the loss of 59 officers and men. A memorial at the Kalkara Naval Cemetery in Malta was dedicated to the 72 Japanese sailors who died in action during the Mediterranean convoy patrols.
Imperial Japanese Navy
Naval policy, expressed by the slogan "Shusei Kokubō" (lit. "Static Defense"), focused on coastal defenses, and a standing army (established with the assistance of the second French Military Mission to Japan), and a coastal navy that could act in a supportive role to drive an invading enemy from the coast. Leading to a military organization under the "Rikushu Kaijū" (Army first, Navy second) principle. This meant a defense designed to repel an enemy from Japanese territory to which the chief responsibility for that mission rested upon Japan's army, consequently, the army gained the bulk of the military expenditures. During the 1870s and 1880s, the Imperial Japanese Navy remained an essentially coastal defense force, although the Meiji government continued to modernize it. "Jo Sho Maru" (soon renamed "Ryūjō Maru") commissioned by Thomas Glover was launched at Aberdeen, Scotland on 27 March 1869.
Japanese ship-naming conventions
When the Imperial Japanese Navy was formed, the Ministry of the Navy submitted potential ship names to the Emperor for approval. During the early years ships were often donated by the Shogunate or Japanese clans and the original clan names were kept.
Naval history of Japan
The Imperial Japanese Navy was administered by the Ministry of the Navy of Japan and controlled by the Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff at Imperial General Headquarters. In order to combat the numerically superior American navy, the IJN devoted large amounts of resources to creating a force superior in quality to any navy at the time. Consequently, at the beginning of World War II, Japan probably had the most sophisticated Navy in the world. Betting on the speedy success of aggressive tactics, Japan did not invest significantly on defensive organization such as protecting her long shipping lines against enemy submarines, which she never managed to do, particularly under-investing in anti-submarine escort ships and escort aircraft carriers.
Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Although the capabilities of these first submarines were never tested in combat during the Russo-Japanese War, the first submarine squadron was soon formed at Kure Naval District in the Inland Sea. Following the war, the Japanese government followed submarine developments by the Royal Navy with interest, and purchased two British C-class submarines directly from Vickers, with an additional three built from kits by the Kure Naval Arsenal. These became respectively the Japanese and submarines. An additional two vessels, forming the were later built by the Kure Naval Arsenal.
Imperial Japanese Navy in World War I
The Imperial Japanese Navy in World War I conducted the majority of Japan's military operations during the war. Japan entered World War I on the side of the Entente, against Germany and Austria-Hungary, as a consequence of the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The capture of Tsingtao, the hunt for the German East Asia Squadron, the capture of German colonies in the Pacific and operations in the Mediterranean were the only note worthy events and all marginal to the outcome of the war. As a result, Japanese participation in the war was limited.
Naval War College (Japan)
In the 1880s, the Imperial Japanese Navy realized the need for post-graduate study by officer graduates of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. Naval Minister Saigō Tsugumichi authorized the formation of the Naval War College on 14 July 1888 in Tsukiji, Tokyo, and the College accepted its first class from 28 August 1888. The same year the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy moved from Tsukiji to Etajima in Hiroshima Prefecture.
Imperial Japanese Army
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; "Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun"; "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor of Japan as supreme commander of the army and the navy. Later an Inspectorate General of Aviation became the third agency with oversight of the army. During wartime or national emergencies, the nominal command functions of the emperor would be centralized in an Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ), an ad-hoc body consisting of the chief and vice chief of the Army General Staff, the Minister of the Army, the chief and vice chief of the Naval General Staff, the Inspector General of Aviation, and the Inspector General of Military Training.
French military mission to Japan (1872–80)
Around that time however, France gained considerable influence over the Imperial Japanese Navy, with the despatch of the engineer Louis-Émile Bertin, who directed the design and construction of Japan's first large-scale modern Navy from 1886.
Marines
In 1873 a short-lived marine corps was added to the newly created Imperial Japanese Navy, using Britain's Royal Marines as a model. Considered unsuitable in its original form this force was disbanded in 1878.
Both the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army subsequently established marine-type units. Both were dissolved at the end of World War II and Japan does not currently have marines as such.
List of Air Fleets of the Imperial Japanese Navy
During the Pacific War of 1941-45, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service disposed of an increasing number of "air fleets" - airborne combat units attached to the Navy. The 1st Air Fleet was the primary carrier unit, while other Air Fleets were for defence, training or supporting naval operations in particular theatres.
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
An 1872 edict officially separated the Japanese Navy from the Japanese Army. Politicians like Enomoto Takeaki set out to use the Navy to expand to the islands south of Japan in similar fashion to the Army's northern and western expansion. The Navy sought to upgrade its fleet to a blue water navy and used cruises to expand the Japanese consciousness on the southern islands. Enomoto's policies helped the Navy expand and incorporate many different islands into the Japanese Empire, including Iwo Jima in 1889. The navy continued to expand and incorporate political influence throughout the early twentieth century.
Imperial Japanese Navy
By 1920, the Imperial Japanese Navy was the world's third largest navy and a leader in naval development:Japan entered World War I on the side of the Entente, against Germany and Austria-Hungary, as a consequence of the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance. In the Siege of Tsingtao, the Imperial Japanese Navy helped seize the German colony of Tsingtao. During the siege, beginning on 5 September 1914, conducted the world's first successful sea-launched air strikes. On 6 September 1914, in the very first air-sea battle in history, a Farman aircraft launched by "Wakamiya" attacked the Austro-Hungarian cruiser and the German gunboat "Jaguar" off Tsingtao. from Jiaozhou Bay. Four Maurice Farman seaplanes bombarded German land targets like communication and command centers, and damaged a German minelayer in the Tsingtao peninsula from September to 6 November 1914 when the Germans surrendered.
Naval history of Korea
During the Japanese occupation period (1910-1945), the Imperial Japanese Navy built a naval base (Chinkai Guard District) in southern Korea (at present-day Jinhae).
Battle of Hakodate
The new Imperial government, finally secure, established numerous new institutions soon after the end of the conflict. The Imperial Japanese Navy in particular was formally established in July 1869, and incorporated many of the combatants and ships which had participated in the Battle of Hakodate.
Imperial Japanese Navy
The new fleet consisted of:One of these battleships, , which was among the most powerful warships afloat when completed, was ordered from the Vickers shipyard in the United Kingdom at the end of 1898, for delivery to Japan in 1902. Commercial shipbuilding in Japan was exhibited by construction of the twin screw steamer "Aki-Maru", built for Nippon Yusen Kaisha by the Mitsubishi Dockyard & Engine Works, Nagasaki. The Imperial Japanese cruiser was built at the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, California.
Japanese cruiser Yahagi (1911)
On 7 February 1917 the Imperial Japanese Navy formed the First Special Squadron which composed the cruisers "Yahagi", , and , together with the Second Destroyer Flotilla. This squadron was based at Singapore and commanded by Rear Admiral Kozaburo Oguri. On 26 March 1917, the British Admiralty further requested the deployment of "Chikuma" and "Hirado" to Australia and New Zealand to protect shipping against German commerce raiding operations.
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
During the first six months of the war Japanese naval air power achieved spectacular success and spearheaded offensive operations against Allied forces. On 7 December 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, crippling the U.S Pacific Fleet by destroying over 188 aircraft and only losing 29 of their own aircraft. On 10 December, Japanese naval land based bombers operating from bases in Indochina, were also responsible for the sinkings of HMS "Prince of Wales" and HMS "Repulse" which was the first time that capital ships were sunk by aerial attack while underway. In April 1942, the Indian Ocean raid drove the Royal Navy from South East Asia. There were also air raids carried out on the Philippines and Darwin in northern Australia.
Imperial Japanese Navy
Enomoto Takeaki, the admiral of the "shōgun"s navy, refused to surrender all his ships, remitting just four vessels, and escaped to northern Honshū with the remnants of the "shōgun"s navy: eight steam warships and 2,000 men. Following the defeat of pro-shogunate resistance on Honshū, Admiral Enomoto Takeaki fled to Hokkaidō, where he established the breakaway Republic of Ezo (27 January 1869). The new Meiji government dispatched a military force to defeat the rebels, culminating with the Naval Battle of Hakodate in May 1869. The Imperial side took delivery (February 1869) of the French-built ironclad "Kotetsu" (originally ordered by the Tokugawa shogunate) and used it decisively towards the end of the conflict.
Japanese battleship Nagato
"Nagato", named for Nagato Province, was ordered on 12 May 1916 and laid down at the Kure Naval Arsenal on 28 August 1917 as the lead ship of her class. She was launched on 9 November 1919 by Admiral Katō Tomosaburō, completed on 15 November 1920 and commissioned 10 days later with Captain Nobutaro Iida in command. "Nagato" was assigned to the 1st Battleship Division and became the flagship of Rear Admiral Sōjirō Tochinai. On 13 February 1921, the ship was inspected by the Crown Prince, Hirohito. Captain Kanari Kabayama relieved Iida on 1 December 1921. The ship hosted Marshal Joseph Joffre on 18 February 1922 and Edward, Prince of Wales, and his aide-de-camp Lieutenant Louis Mountbatten on 12 April during the prince's visit to Japan.
List of battles of the Imperial Japanese Navy
The following are some of the battles of the Imperial Japanese Navy:Besides support for Imperial Japanese Army operations, the Navy operations involved many landing operations by the Special Naval Landing Forces along the coasts and rivers of the Republic of China, French Indochina and along the Yangtze River and its tributaries. The Navy provided much of the air support for operations in the first few years of the war in central and southern China.
1st Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
First established on 28 December 1903, the IJN 1st Fleet was created during the Russo-Japanese War when the Imperial General Headquarters divided the Readiness Fleet into a mobile strike force of cruisers and destroyers to pursue the Imperial Russian Navy's Vladivostok-based cruiser squadron (the Imperial Japanese Navys 2nd Fleet), while the remaining bulk of the Japanese fleet (the IJN 1st Fleet) continued to blockade Port Arthur in hopes of luring the battleships of the Russian Pacific Fleet out into a classic line-of-battle confrontation. The two fleets were combined into the Combined Fleet for the final Battle of Tsushima.
The decisive victory of the Japanese fleet over the Imperial Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima validated the doctrine of the "decisive victory", or "kantai kessen" as stipulated by naval theorists such as Alfred Thayer Mahan and Satō Tetsutarō in the eyes of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, and future naval procurement and deployment was centered on refinements of this doctrine. The Mahanian objective was to build a fleet in being, a naval force kept deliberately in strategic reserve, as secondary forces based on cruisers and destroyers waged a campaign of attrition against an approaching enemy, who would then be destroyed in a climatic final battle similar to the Battle of Tsushima.
As a result of this doctrine, although individual ships and task forces were dispatched on occasion for specific combat operations, the main force in the Imperial Japanese Navy was mostly held in reserve from the time of its inception until near the end of World War II.
Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff
After the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-22, where Japan agreed to keep the size of its fleet smaller than that of the United Kingdom and the United States, the Imperial Japanese Navy became divided into the mutually hostile Fleet Faction and Treaty Faction political cliques. The Navy Ministry tended to be pro-Treaty Faction and was anxious to maintain the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. However the Navy General Staff came to be dominated by the Fleet faction, and gradually gained ascendancy in the 1930s with increasing Japanese militarism.The Navy General Staff pushed through the attack on Pearl Harbor against the wishes of the more diplomatic Navy Ministry.
Ministry of the Navy (Japan)
Initially, the Navy Ministry was in charge of both administration and operational command of the Imperial Japanese Navy. However, with the creation of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff in May 1893, it was left with only administrative functions.
Imperial Russian Navy
Due to the ongoing blockade of Port Arthur in 1904, the Imperial Russian Navy dispatched their remaining submarines to Vladivostok, and by the end of 1904 the last of seven subs had reached their new base there. Using the seven boats as a foundation, the Imperial Russian Navy created the world's first operational submarine fleet at Vladivostok on 1 January 1905. On 14 February 1905 the new "submarine fleet" sent out its first combat patrol consisting of the vessels "Som" and "Delfin". With patrols varying from 24 hours to a few days, the sub fleets first enemy contact occurred on 29 April 1905 when Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo boats fired upon "Som", withdrawing after failing to score a hit. On 1 July the Russian submarine "Keta" made contact with two Japanese torpedo boats in the Tartar Strait. "Keta" could not submerge quick enough to obtain a firing position and both adversaries broke contact.
Imperial German Navy
The Imperial German Navy (, "Imperial Navy") was the navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the "North German Federal Navy"), which primarily had the mission of coastal defence. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded the navy, and enlarged its mission. The key leader was Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, who greatly expanded the size and quality of the navy, while adopting the sea power theories of American strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan. The result was a naval arms race with Britain as the German navy grew to become one of the greatest maritime forces in the world, second only to the Royal Navy. The German surface navy proved ineffective during World War I; its only major engagement, the Battle of Jutland, was indecisive. However, the submarine fleet was greatly expanded and posed a major threat to the British supply system. The Imperial Navy's main ships were turned over to the Allies, but were sunk at Scapa Flow in 1919 by German crews.
Imperial Japanese Navy
On 26 March 1868 the first naval review in Japan took place in Osaka Bay, with six ships from the private domain navies of Saga, Chōshū, Satsuma, Kurume, Kumamoto and Hiroshima participating. The total tonnage of these ships was 2,252 tons, which was far smaller than the tonnage of the single foreign vessel (from the French Navy) that also participated. The following year, in July 1869, the Imperial Japanese Navy was formally established, two months after the last combat of the Boshin War.
Sasebo, Nagasaki
The area of present-day Sasebo was a small fishing village under the control of nearby Hirado Domain until shortly after the start of the Meiji period. Imperial Japanese Navy Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, when surveying the coasts of northwestern Kyūshū for the site of a navy base, selected his location based on its protected, deep-water harbor, geographic proximity to China and Korea, and the presence of nearby coal fields. Sasebo Naval District, founded in 1886, became the major port for the Japanese navy in its operations in the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, and remained a major naval base to the end of World War II. Along with the base facilities, the navy also constructed the Sasebo Naval Arsenal, which included major shipyards and repair facilities.
Shimamura Hayao
After the war, he was assigned command of the Training Fleet and became Commandant of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy from 1906-1908. He became Commandant of the Naval War College (Japan) from 1908-1909. He was subsequently Commander in Chief of the 2nd Fleet from 1909–1911, Commander in Chief of the Sasebo Naval District from 1911–1914, and Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff during World War I from 1914-1920. Shimamura was initially opposed to the deployment of the Imperial Japanese Navy to the Mediterranean under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, as he felt that this would weaken Japan's defenses against the "true threat" of the United States.
Japan during World War I
Japan's military, taking advantage of the great distances and Imperial Germany's preoccupation with the war in Europe, seized German possessions in the Pacific and East Asia, but there was no large-scale mobilization of the economy. Foreign Minister Katō Takaaki and Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu wanted to use the opportunity to expand Japanese influence in China. They enlisted Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925), then in exile in Japan, but they had little success. The Imperial Japanese Navy, a nearly autonomous bureaucratic institution, made its own decision to undertake expansion in the Pacific. It captured Germany's Micronesian territories north of the equator, and ruled the islands until they were transitioned to civilian control in 1921. The operation gave the Navy a rationale for enlarging its budget to double the Army budget and expanding the fleet. The Navy thus gained significant political influence over national and international affairs.
6th Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
The 6th Fleet was formed on 15 November 1940, and was assigned general control of all IJN submarine operations. Its initial mission was reconnaissance off the west coast of the United States, east coast of Australia, and the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean.
Imperial Japanese Navy
Japan built her first large ocean-going warships in the beginning of the 17th century, following contacts with the Western nations during the Nanban trade period. In 1613, the "daimyō" of Sendai, in agreement with the Tokugawa Bakufu, built "Date Maru", a 500-ton galleon-type ship that transported the Japanese embassy of Hasekura Tsunenaga to the Americas, which then continued to Europe. From 1604 the Bakufu also commissioned about 350 Red seal ships, usually armed and incorporating some Western technologies, mainly for Southeast Asian trade.
Imperial Japanese Navy
The origins of the Imperial Japanese Navy go back to early interactions with nations on the Asian continent, beginning in the early medieval period and reaching a peak of activity during the 16th and 17th centuries at a time of cultural exchange with European powers during the Age of Discovery. After two centuries of stagnation during the country's ensuing seclusion policy under the "shōgun" of the Edo period, Japan's navy was comparatively backward when the country was forced open to trade by American intervention in 1854. This eventually led to the Meiji Restoration. Accompanying the re-ascendance of the Emperor came a period of frantic modernization and industrialization. The navy had several successes, sometimes against much more powerful enemies such as in the Sino-Japanese war and the Russo-Japanese War, before being largely destroyed in World War II.
List of battleships of Japan
In the late 19th century, the strategy of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was based on the "Jeune Ecole" naval philosophy, promoted by French military advisor and naval architect Emile Bertin. This emphasized cheap torpedo boats and commerce raiding to offset expensive, heavily armoured ships. However, the acquisition of two German-built s by the Imperial Chinese Beiyang Fleet in 1885 threatened Japan's interests in Korea. A visit by the Chinese warships to Japan in early 1891 forced the Japanese government to acknowledge that the IJN required similarly armed and armoured ships of its own to counter the ironclads; the three lightly armored s ordered from France would not suffice, despite their powerful guns. The IJN decided to order a pair of the latest battleships from the United Kingdom as Japan lacked the technology and capability to construct its own battleships.
4th Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
The 4th Fleet was a fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Fourth Fleet designation was used during three separate periods. The initial designation was for a group of ships that were assigned to work together during the Russo-Japanese conflict and the period of its immediate aftermath. The second time the designation was used was during the Sino-Japanese conflict, and the third time was as a South Pacific area of command during the middle of the Pacific War.
Imperial Japanese Navy
A Japanese squadron intercepted and defeated a Chinese force near Korean island of Pungdo; damaging a cruiser, sinking a loaded transport, capturing one gunboat and destroying another. The battle occurred before the war was officially declared on 1 August 1894. On August 10, the Japanese ventured into the Yellow Sea to seek out the Beiyang Fleet and bombarded both Weihaiwei and Port Arthur. Finding only small vessels in either harbor, the Combined Fleet returned to Korea to support further landings off the Chinese coast. The Beiyang Fleet under the command of Admiral Ding was initially ordered to stay close to the Chinese coast while reinforcements were sent to Korea by land. But as Japanese troops had very quickly advanced northward from Seoul to Pyongyang the Chinese decided to rush troops to Korea by sea under a naval escort, in mid-September.
Concurrently, because there had been no decisive encounter at sea, the Japanese decided to send more troops to Korea. Early in September, the navy was directed to support further landings and to support the army on Korea's western coast. As Japanese ground forces then moved north to attack Pyongyang, Admiral Ito correctly guessed that the Chinese would attempt to reinforce their army in Korea by sea. On 14 September, the Combined Fleet went north to search the Korean and Chinese coasts and to bring the Beiyang Fleet to battle. On 17 September 1894, the Japanese encountered the off the mouth of the Yalu River, the Combined Fleet then devastated the Beiyang Fleet during the battle, in which the Chinese fleet lost eight out of 12 warships. The Chinese subsequently retreated behind the Weihaiwei fortifications. However, they were then surprised by Japanese troops, who outflanked the harbour's defenses in coordination with the navy. The remnants of the Beiyang Fleet were destroyed at Weihaiwei. Although Japan turned out victorious, the two large German-made Chinese ironclad battleships ("Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan") remained almost impervious to Japanese guns, highlighting the need for bigger capital ships in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The next step of the Imperial Japanese Navy's expansion would thus involve a combination of heavily armed large warships, with smaller and innovative offensive units permitting aggressive tactics.
Imperial Navy (film)
"Imperial Navy" was released theatrically in Japan where it was distributed by Toho on 8 August 1981. The film was the highest grossing domestic production in Japan in 1981.
List of Air Fleets of the Imperial Japanese Navy
The formed the primary carrier fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), a grouping of naval aircraft and aircraft carriers that at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet. As losses mounted, the carriers were removed and the 1st Air Fleet was transformed into a land based Naval aviation force forward based on islands and land masses along the perimeter of the Japanese controlled sphere.
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
In the 1920s, the larger percentage of aircraft that were initially acquired and inducted into service, were land based seaplanes whose main tasks were reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols. The Japanese had drawn up plans for the formation of 17 squadrons of these aircraft, but budgetary constraints limited the units to eleven until 1931. Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty two incomplete capital ships were allowed to be rebuilt as carriers, for the Japanese; and . However, "Amagi" was damaged during the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 and became a replacement. "Akagi" was completed in 1927 while "Kaga" completed a year later. With these two carriers much of Imperial Japanese Navy's doctrines and operating procedures were established.
When "Hōshō" was completed, there was little thought was given to naval aircraft in an offensive role and moreover with only one carrier there was insufficient consideration given to carrier doctrine within the Japanese naval establishment. However, in 1928 the First Carrier Division was formed with three carriers and the study of the role of aircraft carriers in a naval engagement was initiated. Because of the short range of carrier aircraft at the time, many in the naval hierarchy were still very much surface oriented. They viewed carrier aircraft to be employed as support for the main battle fleet and not as offensive weapons. Aircraft were to act as scouts and spotters, layers of smoke screens for naval gunfire, fleet air defense, and later (with the increase in aircraft performance) as a means to attack battleships and other surface targets.
Collaborationist Chinese Army
The Navy of the Reorganized National Government was first created on 13 December 1940 by the Japanese, with an inauguration ceremony taking place in Weihaiwei. It was attended by officials, including vice chief of naval staff, Zhang Xiyuan, along with the commander of the Japanese naval forces operating in north China. Several former Nationalist navy vessels were handed over by Japan, along with several naval bases, including Weihaiwei and Qingdao. There are reports that the former Nationalist cruisers "Ning Hai" and "Ping Hai" were given to the Nanjing Navy by Japan and were commissioned in a large ceremony, becoming useful propaganda tools. They were used until 1943 when the Imperial Japanese Navy took them for its own use. By 1944, the Nanjing Navy was under the direct command of Naval Minister Ren Yuandao and mostly functioned as a coastal patrol force.
Ranks of the Imperial Japanese Navy
The following graphs present the rank insignia of the Imperial Japanese Navy from its establishment in 1868 to its defeat during World War II in 1945. These designs were used from 1931 onwards.
Amphibious Brigades (Imperial Japanese Army)
The  were marines brigades of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. They were established in 1943. Although the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia had been completed at the time of their founding , the Imperial General Headquarters saw the need for flexible countermeasures to defend strategic islands in the Pacific Ocean from impending Allied invasion as the war situation deteriorated for the Japanese Empire.
Naval history of Japan
In the years before World War II the IJN began to structure itself specifically to fight the United States. A long stretch of militaristic expansion and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 had alienated the United States, and the country was seen as a rival of Japan.
To achieve Japan’s expansionist policies, the Imperial Japanese Navy also had to fight off the largest navies in the world (The 1922 Washington Naval Treaty allotted a 5/5/3 ratio for the navies of Great Britain, the United States and Japan). She was therefore numerically inferior and her industrial base for expansion was limited (in particular compared to the United States). Her battle tactics therefore tended to rely on technical superiority (fewer, but faster, more powerful ships), and aggressive tactics (daring and speedy attacks overwhelming the enemy, a recipe for success in her previous conflicts). The Naval Treaties also provided an unintentional boost to Japan because the numerical restrictions on battleships prompted them to build more aircraft carriers to try to compensate for the United States' larger battleship fleet.
Japan
From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military "shōguns" who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, which was ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation led by SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
Most Japanese forces in the theater were part of the of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), which was responsible for all Japanese warships, naval aircraft, and marine infantry units. The "Rengō Kantai" was led by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, until he was killed in an attack by U.S. fighter planes in April 1943. Yamamoto was succeeded by Admiral Mineichi Koga (1943–44) and Admiral Soemu Toyoda (1944–45). The of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) was responsible for Imperial Japanese Army ground and air units in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. The IJN and IJA did not formally use joint/combined staff at the operational level, and their command structures/geographical areas of operations overlapped with each other and those of the Allies.
8th Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
Established on 14 July 1942, the IJN 8th Fleet was a headquarters unit established to direct Japanese naval operations in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. The warship forces assigned to the 8th Fleet were known as the Outer South Seas Force and Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa was assigned as the first commander.
Combined Fleet
Combined Fleet was re-formed during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 to provide a unified overall command for the three separate fleets in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The IJN 1st Fleet was the main battleship force, which formed the backbone of the navy and was intended to be used in a traditional line-of-battle showdown with an equivalent enemy battleship fleet ("kantai kessen"). The IJN 2nd Fleet was a fast, mobile strike force with armored cruisers and protected cruisers. The IJN 3rd Fleet was primarily a reserve fleet of obsolete vessels considered too weak for front-line combat service, but which could still be used in the operation to blockade Port Arthur. Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō was commander-in-chief of Combined Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War.
Imperial Guard (Japan)
The Imperial Guard of the Imperial Japanese Army was formed in 1867. It became the foundation of the Imperial Japanese Army after the Emperor Meiji assumed all the powers of state during the Meiji Restoration. The Imperial Guard, which consisted of 12,000 men organized and trained along French Military lines, first saw action in the Satsuma Rebellion. It was organized into the 1st Guards Infantry Brigade which had the 1st and 2nd Regiments. The 3rd and 4th Regiments belonged to the 2nd Guards infantry Brigade.
Manchukuo Imperial Navy
The Manchukuo Imperial Navy was established on 15 April 1932, by the proclamation of the "Manchukuoan Armed Forces Act" by Emperor Pu Yi, who also assumed the role of supreme commander. The flagship of the fleet was the destroyer "Hai Wei", formerly the , a of the Imperial Japanese Navy. However, coastal defense for Manchukuo remained largely in the hands of the IJN 3rd China (North) Fleet.
Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II
Allied naval opposition to the Imperial Japanese Navy during the First Operational Phase was sporadic and ineffective. In the first major surface engagement of the war on February 27 at the Java Sea, an Allied naval force was defeated by a Japanese one of similar size. Following its debut at Pearl Harbor, the Kido Butai supported the capture of Rabaul in January 1942 and the Dutch East Indies in February. The only problem encountered by the Japanese during the First Operational Phase was the failure to occupy the Philippines on schedule. However, with no expectation of reinforcement, the fall of the Philippines was only a matter of time and the remaining American and Filipino forces surrendered in early May 1942.
1st Air Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
On 14 July 1942, First Air Fleet was converted into Third Fleet (第三艦隊) and Eighth Fleet (第八艦隊), and 2nd Carrier Division (first generation) and 5th Carrier Division were disbanded. On the same date, the Japanese Navy's front-line aircraft carriers and their aircraft units came under the command of the 3rd Fleet, which was created in its sixth generation on that date.
Imperial Japanese Navy
The period immediately after Tsushima also saw the IJN, under the influence of the navalist theoretician Satō Tetsutarō, adopt an explicit policy of building for a potential future conflict against the United States Navy. Satō called for a battlefleet at least 70% as strong as that of the USA. In 1907, the official policy of the Navy became an 'eight-eight fleet' of eight modern battleships and eight battlecruisers. However, financial constraints prevented this ideal ever becoming a reality.
Imperial Japanese Navy
Between 1882 and 1918, ending with the visit of the French Military Mission to Japan, the Imperial Japanese Navy stopped relying on foreign instructors altogether. In 1886, she manufactured her own prismatic powder, and in 1892 one of her officers invented a powerful explosive, the Shimose powder.
List of battlecruisers of Japan
The Imperial Japanese Navy () built four battlecruisers, with plans for an additional four, during the first decades of the 20th century. The battlecruiser was an outgrowth of the armoured cruiser concept, which had proved highly successful against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima at the end of the Russo-Japanese War. In the aftermath, the Japanese immediately turned their focus to the two remaining rivals for imperial dominance in the Pacific Ocean: Britain and the United States. Japanese naval planners calculated that in any conflict with the U.S. Navy, Japan would need a fleet at least 70 percent as strong as the United States' in order to emerge victorious. To that end, the concept of the Eight-Eight fleet was developed, where eight battleships and eight battlecruisers would form a cohesive battle line. Similar to the German Imperial Navy () and in contrast to the Royal Navy, the Japanese envisioned and designed battlecruisers that could operate alongside more heavily armoured battleships to counter numerical superiority.
Recruitment in the Imperial Japanese Navy
Japan's early naval leadership was aware of the severely limited economic and material resources of the country at the time, leading to initial priority given to the education and training of officers and men rather than to the acquisition of additional naval vessels. Conscious of the fact that officers could not be trained overnight, they set about a reorganization of the naval academy; viewing this as essential and realizing that this was a cost-effective means of establishing the foundations for a future navy. Therefore, after the first full year of subjects, the academy implemented a revised program to secure better recruits. As a first step, the government abolished the feudal recruitment and enrollment program which had been retained by the new government. Not only did such a system provide no quality control over cadets, but it also led to a continuation of regional identities among cadets and did little to cultivate the aura of a national navy.
Imperial Japanese Navy
A battle group was also sent to the central Pacific in August and September to pursue the German East Asiatic squadron, which then moved into the Southern Atlantic, where it encountered British naval forces and was destroyed at the Falkland Islands. Japan also seized German possessions in northern Micronesia, which remained Japanese colonies until the end of World War II, under the League of Nations' South Pacific Mandate. Hard pressed in Europe, where she had only a narrow margin of superiority against Germany, Britain had requested, but was denied, the loan of Japan's four newly-built "Kongō"-class battlecruisers (, , , and ), some of the first ships in the world to be equipped with guns, and the most formidable battlecruisers in the world at the time.
Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II
At the beginning of the Pacific War, the strategy of the Imperial Japanese Navy was underpinned by several key assumptions. The most fundamental was that just as the Russo-Japanese war had been decided by the naval Battle of Tsushima (May 27–28, 1905), the war against the United States would be decided by a single decisive naval battle or "Kantai Kessen". This great naval clash would be determined by the big guns aboard battleships and this conviction was shared by both the Japanese and the American naval leaders alike. All other arms of the navy were to be dedicated to supporting the battleships when they met the Americans in battle. The Japanese assumed that at the start of any conflict they would quickly seize the largely unprotected American-held Philippines. This would force the United States to undertake a drive across the Pacific to retake them. Consequently, the great decisive clash would take place somewhere in the western Pacific where the Japanese decided was the right area to stop the American advance.
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
The beginnings of Japanese naval aviation were established in 1912, with the creation of a Commission on Naval Aeronautical Research ("Kaigun Kokūjutsu Kenkyūkai") under the authority of the Technical Department. The commission was charged with the promotion of aviation technology and training for the navy. Initially was focus was in nonrigid airships but it quickly moved on to the development of winged and powered aircraft. That year, the commission decided to purchase foreign winged aircraft and to send junior officers abroad to learn how to fly and maintain them. The navy purchased two seaplanes from the Glenn Curtiss factory in Hammondsport, New York, and two Maurice Farman seaplanes from France. To establish a cadre of naval aviators and technicians, the navy also dispatched three officers to Hammondsport and two to France for training and instruction. After their return to Japan at the end of 1912, two of the newly trained naval aviators made the first flights at Oppama on Yokosuka Bay, one in a Curtiss seaplane, the other in a Maurice Farman.
10th Area Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
The was a fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) established during World War II as a result of IJN commands being isolated in the Philippines.
List of Imperial Japanese Navy admirals
The following is a list of the Admirals of the Imperial Japanese Navy during its existence from 1868 until 1945.
Foreign commerce and shipping of Empire of Japan
In 1893 naval construction was in the range 177,000 to 1,528,000 tons. In 1913 this increased to 3,565,000 tons. In 1924 there were 237 new vessels of 500 tons and another 11 of 10,000 tonnes, continuing the growth to 4,140,000 tonnes in 1928. The Imperial Japanese Navy was the third largest in the world behind the British and American navies, and dominated the West Pacific area before the war. The first modern shipyard was founded in 1891. From this time naval construction rapidly advanced. Japanese vessels of more 100 tonnes represented a registered tonnage total of 5,007,000 tonnes of which 1,198,000 corresponded to the naval construction period of 1936 to 1938. Old vessels were decommissioned or disarmed, while the regular fleet was efficient and modern.
Imperial Japanese Navy
Japan at times continued to solicit foreign expertise in areas in which the IJN was inexperienced, such as naval aviation. The Japanese navy had closely monitored the progress of aviation of the three Allied naval powers during World War I and concluded that Britain had made the greatest advances in naval aviation. The Sempill Mission led by Captain William Forbes-Sempill, a former officer in the Royal Air Force experienced in the design and testing of Royal Navy aircraft during the First World War. The mission consisted of 27 members, who were largely personnel with experience in naval aviation and included pilots and engineers from several British aircraft manufacturing firms. The British technical mission left for Japan in September with the objective of helping the Imperial Japanese Navy develop and improve the proficiency of its naval air arm. The mission arrived at Kasumigaura Naval Air Station the following month, in November 1921, and stayed in Japan for 18 months.
Japanese nationalism
In 1882, the Japanese Government organized the Teiseito (Imperial Gubernative Party), one of the first nationalist parties in the country. Starting from the Russo-Japanese War, Japan adopted the moniker "Dai Nippon Teikoku", acquiring a colonial empire, with the acquisition of the Ryukyus (1879), Formosa (1895), the Liaodong Peninsula and Karafuto (1905), the South Pacific Mandate islands (1918–19) and Joseon (Korea) (1905–10).
Defensively equipped merchant ship
The Imperial Japanese Army established several shipping artillery units during World War II. These units provided detachments to protect Army-operated transports and chartered merchant ships from air or submarine attack. The Imperial Japanese Navy also formed air defence squads from April 1944 which were deployed on board ships.
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () was the navy of the Russian Empire. It was formally established in 1696 and lasted until being dissolved during the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from a smaller force that had existed prior to Czar Peter the Great's founding the regular Russian Navy during the Second Azov campaign. It was expanded in the second half of the 18th century and by the early part of the 19th century, it reached its peak strength, behind only the British and French fleets in terms of size.
Northeast Area Fleet
The Northeast Area Fleet was a short-lived operational headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Navy, established on August 5, 1943. As United States Navy forces had driven the Japanese out of the Aleutian Islands in late 1943 to early 1944, an organizational structure was required to coordinate Japan’s northern defenses against the possibility that the United States would extend operations from the Aleutians into the Chishima Islands, Karafuto and to northern Japan itself. The new Northeast Area Fleet was a combined operational command containing surviving elements of the IJN 5th Fleet, IJN 12th Air Fleet and ground elements. As it became eventually evident that the United States had no intention of using the northern approaches to Japan as an invasion route, gradually most of its forces were reassigned to other theaters of the war. The Northeast Area Fleet itself was disbanded on December 5, 1944.
Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) acquired its first submarines during the Russo-Japanese War on 12 December 1904 where they arrived in sections at the Yokohama dockyards. The vessels were purchased from the relatively new American company, Electric Boat, and were fully assembled and ready for combat operations by August 1905. However, hostilities with Russia were nearing its end by that date, and no submarines saw action during the war.
9th Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
Established on 15 November 1943, the IJN 9th Fleet was a headquarters unit established to direct Japanese naval operations in New Guinea. The ships and equipment of the IJN 9th Fleet were under the operational control of the Southeast Area Fleet. It provided support for Japanese troops on the northern coast of New Guinea, and also administered the No.2 and No.7 Base units of land forces assigned to occupy northern New Guinea. By the time the IJN 9th Fleet had been established, much of New Guinea had already been retaken by American forces under Operation Cartwheel, and the IJN 9th Fleet could do little more than provide defensive support and limited supplies.
History of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1882-1893)
The Imperial Japanese Navy during the 1870s, failed in engage in significant expansion. This was due in part to the domestic turmoils such as peasant and samurai uprisings faced by the nascent Meiji government and financial difficulties, as acquiring a large navy was an expensive proposition. Consequently, the IJN concentrated on developing its officer corps and the training of its personnel. However, in the early 1880s, in the aftermath of the Imo Incident in 1882 and with internal threats to the security eliminated, the Meiji government undertook the first significant naval expansion in its history. The Imperial Japanese Navy developed plans for the expansion of the fleet to forty-two vessels, thirty-two of which would have to be newly constructed. Between 1882-1884, twelve new vessels were purchased or put under construction. Spurred on by anxieties over China, Japanese military expenditures grew steadily in the 1880s. In 1880 the share of military spending had amounted to 19 percent of total government expenditures, in 1886 it had risen to 25 percent and by 1890 it stood at 31 percent.
Imperial Japanese Navy
Japan continued in its efforts to build up a strong national naval industry. Following a strategy of "copy, improve, innovate", foreign ships of various designs were usually analysed in depth, their specifications often improved on, and then were purchased in pairs so as to organize comparative testing and improvements. Over the years, the importation of whole classes of ships was progressively substituted by local assembly, and then complete local production, starting with the smallest ships, such as torpedo boats and cruisers in the 1880s, to finish with whole battleships in the early 20th century. The last major purchase was in 1913 when the battlecruiser was purchased from the Vickers shipyard. By 1918, there was no aspect of shipbuilding technology where Japanese capabilities fell significantly below world standards.
2nd Special Squadron (Japanese Navy)
The 2nd Special Squadron (10 February 1917 – 2 July 1919) was an Imperial Japanese Navy fleet. In accordance with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the fleet helped defend Allied shipping in the Mediterranean theater of operations of World War I.
Yokosuka Naval District
The location of Yokosuka at the entrance to strategic Tokyo Bay was recognized of critical importance by the Tokugawa shogunate and early Meiji government. In 1866, the Tokugawa shogunate government established the "Yokosuka Seisakusho", a military arsenal and naval base, with the help of foreign engineers, including the French naval architect Léonce Verny. The new facility was intended to produce modern, western-style warships and equipment for the Tokugawa navy. After the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration, the new Meiji government took over control of the facility in 1871, renaming it the "Yokosuka Zosenjo" (Yokosuka Shipyards). In August 1876, the Imperial Japanese Navy was organized into eastern and a western strategic zones, with the eastern zone based at Yokosuka, and the western zone based at Nagasaki. However, for ease of communications with naval headquarters in Tokyo, the Tōkai Naval District was relocated to Yokohama in September 1876.
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was faced before and during World War II with considerable challenges, probably more so than any other navy in the world. Japan, like Britain, was almost entirely dependent on foreign resources to supply its economy. To achieve Japan's expansionist policies, IJN had to secure and protect distant sources of raw material (especially Southeast Asian oil and raw materials), controlled by foreign countries (Britain, France, and the Netherlands). To achieve this goal, she had to build large warships capable of long range assault. In the years before World War II, the IJN began to structure itself specifically to fight the United States. A long stretch of militaristic expansion and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese war in 1937 had exacerbated tensions with the United States, which was seen as a rival of Japan.
Imperial Japanese Army
The early Imperial Japanese Army was developed with the assistance of advisors from France, through the second French military mission to Japan (1872–80), and the third French military mission to Japan (1884–89). However, after France's defeat in 1871 the Japanese government switched to the victorious Germans as a model. From 1886 to April 1890, it hired German military advisors (Major Jakob Meckel, replaced in 1888 by von Wildenbrück and Captain von Blankenbourg) to assist in the training of the Japanese General Staff. In 1878, the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office, based on the German General Staff, was established directly under the Emperor and was given broad powers for military planning and strategy.
Combined Fleet
Combined Fleet came under direct command of the Imperial General Headquarters in 1937. With the start of the Pacific War with the attack on Pearl Harbor carried out by Combined Fleet's Kido Butai, Combined Fleet became almost synonymous with the Imperial Japanese Navy. It comprised the battleships, aircraft carriers, aircraft, and the components that made up the main fighting strength of the IJN. It was first mobilized on the whole for the Battle of Midway. After the devastating carrier losses at Midway and in the Solomon Islands campaign, the navy re-organized into a number of "Area Fleets" for local operational control of various geographic zones. Combined Fleet then evolved into more of an administrative organization.
2nd Special Squadron (Japanese Navy)
Troubled by the expansion of Russian influence in India, Korea and Manchuria, the British and Japanese Empires signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902. The treaty was renewed in 1905 following Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, the focus of the alliance shifted towards Germany. In October 1911, Winston Churchill was appointed to the position of First lord of the Admiralty, he sought to counter the potential threat posed by Germany in the North Sea by redeploying warships from the China Seas and the Mediterranean. The two countries renewed the treaty once again as Britain intended to relegate the responsibility of safeguarding its shipping in the Pacific and the Mediterranean to Japan and France respectively, in the event of a war. In 1914, the Imperial Japanese Navy was divided into three fleets. The 1st Fleet was commanded by Vice Admiral Katō Tomosaburō and consisted of the navy's most modern battleships and battlecruisers. The 2nd Fleet was largely formed of captured Russian ships and some cruisers, it was commanded by Katō Sadakichi. The 3rd Fleet was stationed in the South China Sea, it was composed of cruisers and cannon boats. Its total strength amounted to 50 destroyers, 14 battleships and battlecruisers, 13 armored cruisers, 10 lighter cruisers and old cruisers.
4th Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy)
First established on June 14, 1905, the 4th Fleet was created after the Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War specifically to support and cover the landings of Japanese forces in Sakhalin. Afterwards, it was sent to the United States with the Japanese delegation negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth ending the war, and was disbanded on December 20, 1905.
Battle of Miyako Bay
The new Imperial Japanese Navy departed Tokyo on 9 March 1869, and reached Miyako Bay in what is now the city of Miyako in central Iwate Prefecture, on 20 March. The imperial fleet had been rapidly constituted around the French-built ironclad warship , which had been purchased from the United States. Other ships included , ’’Hiryū", , "Yōshun", and , which had been supplied by the domains of Saga, Chōshū and Satsuma to the new central government in 1868. There were altogether eight Imperial ships: "Kōtetsu", "Kasuga", three small corvettes and three transport ships. Future commander in chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Tōgō Heihachirō was an officer on "Kasuga" during this battle
Ironclad warship
Ironclads were also used from the inception of the Imperial Japanese Navy. (Japanese: 甲鉄, literally "Ironclad", later renamed Azuma 東, "East") had a decisive role in the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay in May 1869, which marked the end of the Boshin War, and the complete establishment of the Meiji Restoration. The IJN continued to develop its strength and commissioned a number of warships from British and European shipyards, first ironclads and later armored cruisers. These ships engaged the Chinese Beiyang fleet which was superior on paper at least at the Battle of the Yalu River. Thanks to superior short-range firepower, the Japanese fleet came off better, sinking or severely damaging eight ships and receiving serious damage to only four. The naval war was concluded the next year at the Battle of Weihaiwei, where the strongest remaining Chinese ships were surrendered to the Japanese.
Imperial Japanese Navy
Japan continued the modernization of its navy, especially as China was also building a powerful modern fleet with foreign, especially German, assistance, and as a result tensions were building between the two countries over Korea. 
The Japanese naval leadership on the eve of hostilities, was generally cautious and even apprehensive as the navy had not yet received the warships ordered in February 1893, particularly the battleships and and the cruiser . Hence, initiating hostilities at the time was not ideal, and the navy was far less confident than the Japanese army about the outcome of a war with China.
United States Fleet Activities Sasebo
Sasebo has been a naval base since 1883, when Lieutenant Commander Tōgō Heihachirō nominated the small fishing village to form the nucleus of a base for the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 1905, ships of the Japanese Navy under Admiral Togo sailed from Sasebo to combat the Russian Baltic Fleet, leading to victory for Togo at the Battle of Tsushima.
The Imperial Japanese Navy had approximately 60,000 people working in the dock yard and associated naval stations at the peak of World War II, outfitting ships, submarines and aircraft. Sasebo was a popular liberty port for navy personnel.
Imperial Japanese Navy
In 1895, Yamamoto Gombei was assigned to compose a study of Japan's future naval needs. He believed that Japan should have sufficient naval strength to not only to deal with a single hypothetical enemy separately, but to also confront any fleet from two combined powers that might be dispatched against Japan from overseas waters. He assumed that with their conflicting global interests, it was highly unlikely that the British and Russians would ever join together in a war against Japan, considering it more likely that a major power like Russia in alliance with a lesser naval power, would dispatch a portion of their fleet against Japan. Yamamoto therefore calculated that four battleships would be the main battle force that a major power could divert from their other naval commitments to use against Japan and he also added two more battleships that might be contributed to such a naval expedition by a lesser hostile power. In order to achieve victory Japan should have a force of six of the largest battleships supplemented by four armored cruisers of at least 7,000 tons. The centerpiece of this expansion was to be the acquisition of four new battleships in addition to the two which were already being completed in Britain being part of an earlier construction program. Yamamoto was also advocating the construction of a balanced fleet. Battleships would be supplemented by lesser warships of various types, including cruisers that could seek out and pursue the enemy and a sufficient number of destroyers and torpedo boats capable of striking the enemy in home ports. As a result, the program also included the construction of twenty-three destroyers, sixty-three torpedo boats, and an expansion of Japanese shipyards and repair and training facilities. In 1897, because of fears that the size of the Russian fleet assigned to East Asian waters could be larger than previously believed, the plan was revised. Although budgetary limitations simply could not permit the construction of another battleship squadron, the new Harvey and KC armor plates could resist all but the largest AP shells. Japan could now acquire armored cruisers that could take the place in the battle line. Hence, with new armor and lighter but more powerful quick-firing guns, this new cruiser type was superior to many older battleships still afloat. Subsequently, the revisions to the ten-year plan led to the four protected cruisers were replaced by additional two armored cruisers. As a consequence the ""Six-Six Fleet"" was born, with six battleships and six armored cruisers.
Imperial Japanese Navy
The incident involving Enomoto Takeakis' refusal to surrender and his escape to Hokkaidō with a large part of former Tokugawa Navy's best warships embarrassed the Meiji government politically. The imperial side had to rely on considerable naval assistance from the most powerful domains as the government did not have enough naval power to put down the rebellion on its own. Although the rebel forces in Hokkaidō surrendered, the government's response to the rebellion demonstrated the need for a strong centralized naval force. Even before the rebellion the restoration leaders had realized the need for greater political, economic and military centralization and by August 1869 most of the domains had returned their lands and population registers to the government. In 1871 the domains were abolished altogether and as with the political context the centralization of the navy began with the domains donating their forces to the central government. As a result, in 1871 Japan could finally boast a centrally controlled navy, this was also the institutional beginning of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Imperial Japanese Navy
Samurai such as the future Admiral Enomoto Takeaki (1836–1908) were sent by the shogunate to study in the Netherlands for several years. In 1859 the Naval Training Center relocated to Tsukiji in Tokyo. In 1857 the shogunate acquired its first screw-driven steam warship and used it as an escort for the 1860 Japanese delegation to the United States. In 1865 the French naval engineer Léonce Verny was hired to build Japan's first modern naval arsenals, at Yokosuka and Nagasaki.
Naval history of Japan
The naval history of Japan can be said to begin in early interactions with states on the Asian continent in the early centuries of the 1st millennium, reaching a pre-modern peak of activity during the 16th century, a time of cultural exchange with European powers and extensive trade with the Asian mainland. After over two centuries of relative seclusion under the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan's naval technologies were seen to be no match for Western navies when the country was forced by American intervention in 1854 to abandon its maritime restrictions. This and other events led to the Meiji Restoration, a period of frantic modernization and industrialization accompanied by the re-ascendence of the Emperor, making the Imperial Japanese Navy the third largest navy in the world by 1920, and arguably the most modern at the brink of World War II.
Imperial Japanese Navy
After lengthy discussions, Iwakura eventually convinced the ruling coalition to support Japan's first multi-year naval expansion plan in history. In May 1883, the government approved a plan that, when completed, would add 32 warships over eight years at a cost of just over ¥26 million. This development was very significant for the navy, as the amount allocated virtually equaled the navy's entire budget between 1873 and 1882. The 1882 naval expansion plan succeeded in a large part because of Satsuma power, influence, and patronage. Between 19 August and 23 November 1882, Satsuma forces with Iwakura's leadership, worked tirelessly to secure support for the Navy's expansion plan. After uniting the other Satsuma members of the Dajokan, Iwakura approached the emperor the Meiji emperor arguing persuasively just as he did with the Dajokan, that naval expansion was critical to Japan's security and that the standing army of forty thousand men was more than sufficient for domestic purposes. While the government should direct the lion's share of future military appropriations toward naval matters, a powerful navy would legitimize an increase in tax revenue. On November 24, the emperor assembled select ministers of the "daijō-kan" together with military officers, and announced the need for increased tax revenues to provide adequate funding for military expansion, this was followed by an imperial re-script. The following month, in December, an annual ¥7.5-million tax increase on sake, soy, and tobacco was fully approved, in the hopes that it would provide ¥3.5 million annually for warship construction and ¥2.5 million for warship maintenance. In February 1883, the government directed further revenues from other ministries to support an increase in the navy's warship construction and purchasing budget. By March 1883, the navy secured the ¥6.5 million required annually to support an eight-year expansion plan, this was the largest that the Imperial Japanese Navy had secured in its young existence.
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world by 1920, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy (USN). It was supported by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for aircraft and airstrike operation from the fleet. It was the primary opponent of the Western Allies in the Pacific War.