Tōgō Heihachirō

Tōgō Heihachirō

Tōgō Heihachirō ( Japanese 東 郷 平 八郎 ; born January 27, 1848 in Kagoshima , †  May 30, 1934 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese admiral .

Life

He was born on January 27, 1848 in Satsuma Province (now Kagoshima Prefecture ). From 1871 to 1878 Tōgō studied naval warfare in England.

Tokugawa Conflicts (1863-1869)

Tōgō gained his first combat experience at the age of 17 during the British-Satsumian War , in which Kagoshima was bombed by the British Royal Navy . The British saw this as retaliation for the Namamugi incident , in which the merchant Charles Lennox Richardson had been murdered on Tōkai Street the previous year. The subsequent refusal by the Japanese to provide compensation exacerbated the conflict. The following year, Satsuma built a marine, in which Tōgō and two of his brothers enrolled. In January 1868 during the Boshin War , Tōgō was transferred to an ocean-going paddle steamer, the Kasuga , which fought against the Bakufu Navy in the naval battle of Awa , near Osaka . This is considered to be the first Japanese sea battle between modern fleets. When the conflict shifted to northern Japan, Tōgō took part as a third class officer in the final battles ( Sea Battle of Miyako and Sea Battle of Hakodate ) against the remnants of the Bakufu troops.

First Sino-Japanese War

In 1894, before the official declaration of war on the First Sino-Japanese War , Tōgō, as commander of the cruiser Naniwa , sank the British transport ship Kowshing, which was manned by Chinese soldiers . The Kowshing , apparently under pressure from the Chinese officers, had resisted the order after the Naniwa riot . The sinking caused diplomatic tension with the United Kingdom , but British lawyers found that Tōgō's actions were in complete accordance with international law . Tōgō became known overnight for his mastery of dangerous matters concerning foreign powers and regulations.

After the end of the war Tōgō was successively chief of the naval staff academy, commander of the naval academy in Sasebo and commander of the standing fleet.

Russo-Japanese War

Tōgō on the Mikasa

"The triumphant return of Admiral Togo from the Sea of ​​Japan" (1907)

In 1903, Minister of the Navy Yamamoto Gonnohyōe Tōgō appointed Commander in Chief of the United Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy . This appointment amazed many, including Emperor Meiji , who asked Yamamoto why he had chosen Tōgō. Yamamoto replied:

"He has a lot of personality and is known as a lucky man."

In the Russo-Japanese War (1904/05) Tōgō's fleet attacked the Russian fleet in Port Arthur even before the official declaration of war. In the sea ​​battle in the Yellow Sea , he defeated Admiral Withoft's fleet . During the siege of Port Arthur , he supported General Nogi Maresuke's land troops by blocking the Russian fleet. He finally established his reputation as a brilliant naval war strategist after the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the battle of Tsushima on 27/28. May 1905, in which he led the command of the Japanese fleet as rear admiral on the flagship " Mikasa ".

Late life

Tōgō with his wife Tetsu

In 1906 Tōgō was awarded the British Order of Merit by King Edward VII . Later Tōgō was chief of the admiralty's staff and was appointed count . He was also a member of the Supreme War Council.

In 1913, Tōgō was given the honorary title of Grand Admiral ( Gensui Kaigun Taishō ).

From 1914 to 1924 he was entrusted with the education of Prince Hirohito , who later became emperor of the Shōwa period .

Posthumous honors

Tōgō Heihachirō died on May 30, 1934 in Tokyo. In 1940 the Tōgō Shrine in Harajuku was built in honor of Tōgō Heihachirōs. There he is revered as a kami . There is another Tōgō Shrine in Tsuyazaki (Fukuoka Prefecture) on a hill overlooking the sea (Strait of Tsushima). The only existing statue in his honor is in Ontaku Shrine in Agano (Saitama Prefecture).

A copy of Tōgō Heihachirō's garden now stands as the Japanese Garden of Peace in the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg (part of the US National Museum of the Pacific War ).

Movie

• In the Japanese film Port Arthur - The Battle of the Chinese Sea (Nikonhai Dakaisen, 1969, directed by Seiji Maruyama) Togo was portrayed by Toshirō Mifune .

literature

• Georges Blond: Admiral Togo. 1960.
• EA Falk: Togo and the Rise of Japanese Sea Power. 1936.
• NN: The Togo Gensui Hensankai. 1934, Tokyo. 347 p. (27 p. Photo panels with scenes from the life of Admiral Togo and his time in the Navy).
• Richard Alexander Hough: The Fleet That Had to Die. Publishing house Birlinn Ltd. 2004. 237 pages. ISBN 1-84341-015-X (English).
• Elbert Hubbard: Admiral Togo . Kessinger Publishing. 2006. ISBN 1-4286-9547-8 .
• Bodley, RVC: Togo. Life of a hero. Rise of a Nation (1847–1934). Berlin 1936. FA Herbig publishing bookshop.

Web links

Commons : Tōgō Heihachirō  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Admiral Togo's report on the sinking of the Kowshing .
• Admiral Togo's report on the Battle of Tsushima .
• Newspaper article about Tōgō Heihachirō in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Die kleine Enzyklopädie , Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich, 1950, Volume 2, page 763
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Gy8-vT4-8

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Tōgō is the family name, Heihachirō the first name.