Tōgō Heihachirō

Tōgō Heihachirō (born Jan. 27, 1848, Kagoshima, Japan—died May 30, 1934, Tokyo) was an admiral who led the Japanese fleet to victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05). In the process, he developed new tactics for engaging an advancing enemy fleet.

Tōgō studied naval science in England from 1871 to 1878. After returning to Japan, he served in a number of naval posts and rose in the officer ranks. He was in command of a warship during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 that sank a British merchant ship carrying Chinese troops, which sparked a brief international incident. In December 1903 he was appointed commander in chief of the combined Japanese fleet and was made an admiral the following year on the eve of war with Russia.

After the outbreak of fighting, Tōgō directed the 10-month naval blockade of the great Russian military base at Port Arthur (now Dalien [Lüshun], on the Yellow Sea), helping to bring about its surrender on Jan. 2, 1905. In desperation the Russians dispatched their Baltic fleet to Japan, confronting Admiral Tōgō’s forces on May 27 in the Tsushima Strait, which connects the Sea of Japan (East Sea) with the East China Sea. Tōgō made a maneuver called “crossing the enemy’s T”—i.e., he turned his column across the Russian line of advance—and destroyed 33 out of the 35 Russian ships, ending the war. This spectacular maneuver was later used by the British and French navies. The Japanese victory over Russia—the first occasion in the modern era in which an Asian power defeated a European nation—forced the Western countries to begin viewing Japan as an equal.

Tōgō became chief of the Naval General Staff and war councillor to the emperor after the war. In 1913 he was promoted to fleet admiral. From 1914 to 1924 he was in charge of educating the future emperor Hirohito.