Togo Heihachrio: Japanese Naval Dominance
When the Japanese entered WWII with a fleet that almost controlled the entire Pacific Ocean, it showed to the world the might that the Japanese Navy. All of the skills, training and tactics, techniques and procedures had to come from some place. One of the main influencers of the Japanese Navy pre-WWII was Marshal Admiral Marquis Togo Heihachrio.
Togo Heihachrio was born January 1848 during the Meiji Period in Japan (Lloyd). He was born into a well-off family, and his father was a local samurai. Togo trained to become a samurai for his young adult life until he went to the United Kingdom to study naval warfare (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Learning much in England, he travelled the world and learned much about British naval tactics, who at the time had some of the best naval forces in the world (Lloyd).
After his training in England, Togo Heihachrio return to Japan to lead Japanese naval forces. At first his commands were small, and he had an illness …show more content…
At this point during his life, Togo Heihachrio was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Japan had a small, rapidly growing naval force, and when Admiral Togo Heihachrio engaged the superior Russian Baltic Fleet at Tsushima, his victory was a surprise (Lloyd). It was a crushing defeat to the Russian Navy; 22 out of 36 were sunk and 6 were captured, while the Japanese only lost 3 boats (Encyclopedia of World Biography). This shocked the status quo in Eastern Asia because the Russian Fleet was previously the strongest naval presence in the region. This defeat wrestled the control of the region to the Japanese upsetting the balance of power in the region for decades towards the Japanese. Later in life Togo Heihachrio was recognized as a hero for Japan and earned many other medals (Lloyd). He died in