naval students were sent abroad to study western naval techniques. the bakufu had initially planned on ordering ships and sending students to the united states, but the american civil war led to a cancellation of plans. instead, in 1862 the bakufu placed its warship orders with the netherlands and decided to send 15 trainees there. the students, led by uchida tsunejirō (内田恒次郎), left nagasaki on september 11, 1862, and arrived in rotterdam on april 18, 1863, for a stay of 3 years. they included such figures as the future admiral enomoto takeaki, sawa tarosaemon (沢太郎左衛門), akamatsu noriyoshi (赤松則良), taguchi shunpei (田口俊平), tsuda shinichiro (津田真一郎) and the philosopher nishi amane. this started a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders such admirals tōgō and, later, yamamoto.