PHG Blog

Mutsu's battle history isn't as storied as some of the older Japanese battleships. The Kongo-class in particular were upgraded to keep up with fleet carriers, and literally left slower ships like Mutsu behind in their wake.

Following Leyte Gulf, the Imperial Japanese Navy never again seriously contested a battlespace in the Second World War.

What follows here is less a book review than an annotated bibliography; in my studies of the Imperial Japanese Navy I found that there are hundreds of secondary sources (many of them excellent), but the primary source data, particularly in English, can be harder to find. At the same time, Western sources can lose sight of the primary subject matter and cloud the historiography with implicit (and sometimes explicit) bias.

San Francisco's Lincoln Park, situated on the northwest of the peninsula, is home to several memorials and monuments. Among these are military fortifications, a Holocaust Memorial, and a marker for the end of the Lincoln Highway. Situated among these landmarks, not far fron a statue of El Cid, is the Kanrin Maru Memorial. This place marks a seminal event in pacific history; the first time a Japanese ship made landfall in the United States, in 1860.

MCAS Iwakuni is situated on an island formed by the divergence of the Nishiki River into the Monzen and Imazu Rivers, emptying into Hiroshima Bay just south of Miyajima. Much of the area was purchased by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1938; the following year saw the establishment of the Iwakuni Naval Air Group 岩國海軍航空隊, a flight training command working in tandem with the Imperial Japanese Navy academy at Etajima.

The effect of the atomic bombs, the collapse of Manchuria, and the general devastation on the Japanese mainland from constant Allied air raids all informed the decision to end the war. The following day, 10 August, the Konoe government informed the Allies that it would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.

A B-29 named 'Bockscar' took off from Tinian in the Marianas, and finding the primary target of Kokura obscured by cloud cover and smoke, dropped its bomb on the secondary target, Nagasaki City. The bomb missed its target by approximately 3 km, exploding halfway between the naval arsenal and the Mitsubishi armament works.

On 6 August 1945, the first atomic weapon used in combat was deployed over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Dropped at 8:15 AM by a B-29 named the Enola Gay, the bomb destroyed much of the city.

The Kikkawa, whose leader Hiroie had helped foil the Mori Clan's designs to betray Ieyasu at Sekigahara, were given 30,000 goku across Suo Province; much of what is now modern Iwakuni City.

When reading about this monument, and the story behind it, I can't help but think of the gesture of friendship, and how things would change between the two countries. In 1876, the Japanese were rapidly modernizing, rapidly industrializing and working harder than anybody to gain a seat at the international table; Imperial Germany was the inspiration behind many of these reforms.

Ready for combat by 1905 but too late to take part in the conflict with Russia, the ships were used as training vessels, and were later joined by no. 6 and 7, as Kawasaki Shipyard in Kobe bought plans directly from Holland and built them under the supervision of two of his assistants.

Perhaps best known for his 'sleeping giant' comment issued immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he has been somewhat sanitized in recent scholarship as an anti-war figure (he was not). Yamamoto was fated to preside over a series of quick victories in the early days of the Pacific War, only to be caught up in his own complicated plans at Midway.

The Meiji Emperor, in whose name the Meiji Restoration took place and Boshin War was fought, was on hand to witness six Japanese ships and one french vessel sail together on 26 March 1868. This was the first of 18 fleet reviews, the last of which was in 1940 in Yokohama.

The earthquake, the strongest in recorded Japanese history, set off a series of tsunamis that killed 18,000 throughout the northeast coast of the country. Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures had all but a hundred or so of the casualties. The tsunami that struck Fukushima knocked the power out in the Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which led to a partial meltdown.

Enomoto Takeaki 榎本 武揚 is one of the founding fathers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and a pivotal figure in the history of Japan. Enomoto was born in Edo, near what is now Taito-ku, Tokyo, in 1836.

Tropes and banners and slogans aside: could we do it again? Do we have the infrastructure, the know-how, frankly, the patriotism to rebuild a shattered fleet and take it to the enemy? Could we bring a broken DDG or LCS up from the mud and have it fighting in six months?

Whether or not Momotaro was born from a peach, or from a woman who ate the peach, is one area of disagreement. His age is another; some sources have him at 30 years old at the time of his expedition to defeat the oni; others have him at 15.

Here at Pacific History Guide, we are always looking for new and interesting ways to improve, and get folks connected to history, where they are. If you've used the Guide to find some historical monument or site, or have thought of better ways to reach people, let us know! Our inbox is always open.

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