HOME
*





Naomasa Sakonju
was a vice admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and a convicted war criminal. Biography A native of Kagoshima Prefecture, Sakonju was a graduate of the 40th class of the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1912, placing 98th in a class of 144. He served his midshipman tour on the cruiser ''Soya'', and battleship ''Suwo'', and after commissioning as an ensign was assigned to ''Hashidate''. As a sub-lieutenant he served on the ''Kasuga'', ''Niitaka'', ''Azuma'', and destroyer ''Harukaze''. After his promotion to lieutenant on 1 December 1919, he was assigned to the ''Tenryū'', served a year as communications officer on Chichijima in the Ogasawara Islands, and returned to serve as communications officer on ''Mutsu'', and seaplane tender ''Wakamiya''. He was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1930, and was executive officer of the ''Kako'' in 1933. He held numerous staff positions thereafter, including that of naval attaché to Thailand from 1 Septem ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Kagoshima Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto Prefecture to the north and Miyazaki Prefecture to the northeast. Kagoshima is the capital and largest city of Kagoshima Prefecture, with other major cities including Kirishima, Kanoya, and Satsumasendai. Kagoshima Prefecture is located at the southernmost point of Kyūshū and includes the Satsunan Islands group of the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture's mainland territory extends from the Ariake Sea to Shibushi Bay on the Pacific Ocean coast, and is characterized by two large peninsulas created by Kagoshima Bay. Kagoshima Prefecture formed the core of the Satsuma Domain, ruled from Kagoshima Castle, one of the most important Japanese domains of the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration. History Kagoshima Prefecture correspo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship,Stoll, J. ''Steaming in the Dark?'', Journal of Conflict Resolution Vol. 36 No. 2, June 1992. now referred to by historians as pre-dreadnought battleships. In 1906, the commissioning of into the United Kingdom's Royal Navy heralded a revolution in the field of battleship design. Subsequent battleship designs, influenced by HMS ''Dreadnought'', were referred to as "dreadnoughts", though the term eventually became obsolete as dreadnoughts became the only type of battleship in common use. Battleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, and for decades the battleship was a major factor in both diplomacy and military strategy.Sondhaus, L. ''Naval Warfare 1815–1914'', . A global arms race in battleship cons ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Japanese Battleship Mutsu
''Mutsu'' (陸奥) was the second and last dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) at the end of World War I. It was named after the province. In 1923 she carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake. The ship was modernized in 1934–1936 with improvements to her armour and machinery, and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. Other than participating in the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in 1942, where she did not see any significant combat, ''Mutsu'' spent most of the first year of the Pacific War in training. She returned to Japan in early 1943. That June, one of her aft magazines detonated while she was at anchor, sinking the ship with the loss of 1,121 crew and visitors. The IJN investigation into the cause of her loss concluded that it was the work of a disgruntled crew member. The navy dispersed the survivors in an attempt to conceal the sinking in the interest of morale in Japan. Much ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Bonin Islands
The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic reading of ''mujin''), meaning "no people" or "uninhabited". The only inhabited islands of the group are Chichijima (), the seat of the municipal government, and Hahajima (). Archeological evidence has revealed that some of the islands may have been prehistorically inhabited by members of an unknown Micronesian ethnicity. Ogasawara Municipality (''mura'') and Ogasawara Subprefecture take their names from the Ogasawara Group. The is also used as a wider collective term that includes other islands in Ogasawara Municipality, such as the Volcano Islands, along with three other remote islands ( Nishinoshima, Minamitorishima, and Okinotorishima). Geographically speaking, all of these islands are parts of the Nanpō Islands. A total population of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Chichijima
, native_name_link = , image_caption = Map of Chichijima, Anijima and Otoutojima , image_size = , pushpin_map = Japan complete , pushpin_label = Chichijima , pushpin_label_position = , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_relief = , pushpin_map_caption = , map_custom = , nickname = , location = Pacific Ocean , coordinates = , archipelago = Ogasawara Islands , total_islands = , major_islands = , area_km2 = 23.45 , length_km = , width_km = , coastline_km = , highest_mount = , elevation_m = 326 , country = Japan , country_admin_divisions_title = Prefecture , country_admin_divisions = Tokyo , country_admin_divisions_title_1 = Subprefecture , country_admin_divisions_1 = Ogasawara Subprefecture , country_admin_divisions_title_2 = Village , country_admin_divisions_2 = Ogasawara , populati ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Japanese Cruiser Tenryū
was the lead ship in the two-ship of light cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. ''Tenryū'' was named after the Tenryū River in Nagano and Shizuoka prefectures. Background The ''Tenryū''-class was designed to act as flagships for destroyer flotillas. The design represented an intermediate class between the light cruiser and the destroyer, which had few counterparts in other navies of the time, although it was inspired by a similar concept to the Royal Navy's and s.Gardner, ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921''; page 237 The Imperial Japanese Navy and Japanese shipbuilding industry were still closely associated with the British due to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and were able to improve on the British experience. Design The ''Tenryū''-class vessels, termed "small-model" (or "3,500-Ton") cruisers, were designed as fast flotilla leaders for the Imperial Navy's new first- and second-class destroyers. With improvements in oil-fired turbine engine technolo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often subdivided into senior (first lieutenant) and junior (second lieutenant and even third lieutenant) ranks. In navies, it is often equivalent to the army rank of captain; it may also indicate a particular post rather than a rank. The rank is also used in fire services, emergency medical services, security services and police forces. Lieutenant may also appear as part of a title used in various other organisations with a codified command structure. It often designates someone who is " second-in-command", and as such, may precede the name of the rank directly above it. For example, a "lieutenant master" is likely to be second-in-command to the "master" in an organisation using both ranks. Political uses include lieutenant governor in various g ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Japanese Destroyer Harukaze (1905)
("Spring Wind") was one of 32 destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the first decade of the 20th century. Design and description The ''Kamikaze''-class destroyers were improved versions of the preceding .Friedman 1985, p. 241 They displaced at normal load and at deep load. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of and an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . The ''Kamikaze''s were powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft using steam produced by four Kampon water-tube boilers. The engines produced a total of that gave the ships a maximum speed of . They carried a maximum of of coalWatts & Gordon, p. 243 which gave them a range of at a speed of . Their crew consisted of 70 officers and ratings.Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 133 The main armament of the ''Kamikaze''-class ships consisted of two 40-calibre quick-firing (QF) 12 cwt guns"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 12 cwt referri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in 1885 by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish NavySmith, Charles Edgar: ''A short history of naval and marine engineering.'' Babcock & Wilcox, ltd. at the University Press, 1937, page 263 as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War. Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended o ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Japanese Cruiser Azuma
(sometimes transliterated (archaically) as ''Adzuma'') was an armored cruiser (''Sōkō jun'yōkan'') built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, the ship was built in France. She participated in most of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and was lightly damaged during the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima. ''Azuma'' began the first of five training cruises in 1912 and saw no combat during World War I. She was never formally reclassified as a training ship although she exclusively served in that role from 1921 until she was disarmed and hulked in 1941. ''Azuma'' was badly damaged in an American carrier raid in 1945, and subsequently scrapped in 1946. Background and design The 1896 Naval Expansion Plan was made after the First Sino-Japanese War, and included four armored cruisers in addition to four more battleships, all of which had to be ordered from ov ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Japanese Cruiser Niitaka
was the lead ship of the protected cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was the sister ship of the . ''Niitaka'' was named after Mount Niitaka in Taiwan, at the time, the tallest mountain in the Japanese Empire. Background The ''Niitaka''-class cruisers were ordered by the Imperial Japanese Navy under its 2nd Emergency Expansion Program, with a budget partly funded by the war indemnity received from the Empire of China as part of the settlement of the Treaty of Shimonoseki ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The class was intended for high speed reconnaissance missions. ''Niitaka'' was built at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, with the keel laid down on 7 January 1902 and launching on 15 November 1902. Design In terms of design, ''Niitaka'' was very conservative in layout and similar to, but somewhat larger than the earlier Japanese-designed . The increased displacement, heavier armor and lower center of gravity resulted in a more seaworthy and powerful vessel than ''Suma'', a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Japanese Cruiser Kasuga
was the name ship of the armored cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, built in the first decade of the 20th century by Gio. Ansaldo & C., Sestri Ponente, Italy, where the type was known as the . The ship was originally ordered by the Royal Italian Navy as ''Mitra'' in 1901 and sold in 1902 to Argentine Navy who renamed her ''Bernardino Rivadavia'' during the Argentine–Chilean naval arms race, but the lessening of tensions with Chile and financial pressures caused the Argentinians to sell her before delivery. At that time tensions between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire were rising, and the ship was offered to both sides before she was purchased by the Japanese. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, ''Kasuga'' participated in the Battle of the Yellow Sea and was lightly damaged during the subsequent Battle of Tsushima. In addition, she frequently bombarded the defenses of Port Arthur. The ship played a limited role in World War I and was used to escort ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]