Tōgō Heihachirō

Tōgō Heihachirō (27 January 1848 – 30 May 1934) was a Japanese admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy, widely regarded as one of the country’s greatest naval heroes. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), he commanded the Combined Fleet, bottling up Russian Pacific forces at Port Arthur and then crushing a relief fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905. Western journalists dubbed him “the Nelson of the East.” In Japan, he is still deeply honoured, with shrines and streets bearing his name.

Born Tōgō Nakagorō in the Kajiya-chō district of Kagoshima, in Satsuma domain (now Kagoshima Prefecture), he was the third of four sons of Tōgō Kichizaemon, a samurai who served the Shimazu daimyō as revenue controller, wardrobe master, and district governor, and Hori Masuko, a noblewoman from the same clan. Kajiya-chō, a samurai housing district, also produced other Meiji-era leaders like Saigō Takamori and Ōkubo Toshimichi, who rose to prominence partly because the Shimazu clan played a decisive role in the Boshin War against the Tokugawa shogunate. Raised to be a samurai, Tōgō changed his name to Heihachirō (“peaceful son”) at age 13 in a traditional genpuku ceremony.

His first taste of war came in August 1863, during the Bombardment of Kagoshima, when the Royal Navy shelled the port to punish the Satsuma daimyō for the Namamugi Incident and Japan’s refusal to pay an indemnity. Fifteen-year-old Tōgō served on a gun crew defending the harbour. In 1866, at 17, he joined Satsuma’s new navy; two brothers also enlisted. During the Boshin War, in January 1868, he was assigned to the paddle-wheel steamer *Kasuga* and fought at the Battle of Awa near Osaka, the first modern naval battle between Japanese fleets. He later served as a third-class officer on the *Kasuga* at the Battles of Miyako Bay and Hakodate in 1869, the final clashes against Bakufu holdouts.

After the civil war ended in autumn 1869, Tōgō went to Yokohama to study English, living with government official Daisuke Shibata and receiving pronunciation coaching from Charles Wagman, a correspondent for *The Illustrated London News*. He progressed quickly and in 1870 entered the new Imperial Japanese Navy Training School in Tsukiji, Tokyo. On 11 December 1870, he was formally made a cadet on the ironclad flagship *Ryūjō* in Yokohama harbour.

In February 1871, Tōgō was one of twelve cadets sent to Britain for naval studies. He spent seven years there, mixing practical sea training with a voyage to Australia. Arriving in Southampton in April 1871 after an 80-day journey, he first saw London, then the world’s most populous city. The stone domes, massive buildings, unfamiliar room furnishings, and butchers’ displays piled with meat astonished the Japanese cadets. They were split up and placed in English boarding houses for language and cultural instruction. Tōgō spent weeks in Plymouth, a major naval port, then studied history, mathematics, and engineering at a naval preparatory school in Portsmouth under a clergyman-tutor, aiming for the training ship *Britannia* at Dartmouth. When the British Admiralty refused places for Japanese cadets at Dartmouth in 1872, he joined HMS *Worcester*, the Thames Nautical Training College’s ship moored at Greenhithe. He found the rations meagre, often dipping bread in tea to fill himself, and his English comrades, ignorant of Asian differences, called him “Johnny Chinaman”—a nickname he threatened to settle with blows. Gunnery training took place on HMS *Victory* in Portsmouth, where he attended Trafalgar Day ceremonies in 1873. After two years, he graduated second in his class. In 1875, he circumnavigated the globe as an ordinary seaman on the British training ship *Hampshire*, spending seventy days at sea without a port call.