This book is uniform with my similar book on the Russian Navy, and
is designed to have an exactly similar scope; that is to say, it
traces the Japanese Navy from the earliest period up to the time of
the outbreak of the war with Russia in February, 1904. It then deals
with the dockyards of Japan, the armament and equipment of her Fleet,
with her _personnel_, both officers and men, and finally with all
those side issues and semi-political questions which have brought the
modern Japanese Fleet into existence and governed the Japanese building
programme. In an Appendix, certain matters that may seem to demand
detailed attention are dealt with separately.
In preparing this book for the press—a task that I began so long ago
as the year 1900—I have received the most kind and willing assistance
of a great many personal friends in the Fleet of “Britain’s ally.”
To them I would express my most cordial thanks. Especially would I
mention my indebtedness in various—I might say innumerable—ways to
Admirals Yamamoto Gombey, Dewa, Kamimura, Ito, and Ijuin; Captains
Yamada, Uchida, Kawashima, and Kashiwabara; Commanders Kuroi,
Takarabé, Hirose, Takeshita, Yamanaka; Lieut.-Commanders Nomaguchi,
Hideshima, Sato, Horiuchi; Staff-Paymaster Minuma; Lieutenants
Ishikawa, Yamamoto, Yamagi, Fukura, Matsui, Sasaki; Engineer-Lieutenant
Kimura; Chief-Constructor Matsuo; Constructor Kondo; and a great many
others—all personal friends, to whose suggestions it is due that I came
to write this book at all.
I am neither pro-Japanese nor pro-Russian. As I write, disaster is
thick upon the Russian Fleet, and to many close friends in it go those
sympathies which, had things been the other way about, would have gone
as surely to the Japanese Fleet. To write this book without bias has
been my special aim; and in view of the enthusiastic admiration which
the Japanese Fleet is now evoking in the Anglo-Saxon world, I have
especially tried not to be blind to such defects as the Japanese Navy
may exhibit. This, however, is obvious in the body of the book, and
needs no mention here, any more than reference is required in this
Preface to the courage and skill which Japanese sailors have shown.
Portions of some of the chapters have, in some form or other, appeared
in the _Engineer_, _Daily Chronicle_, _Daily Mail_, _Fortnightly
Review_, _Collier’s Weekly_, or _Forum_. To the editors of these papers
I desire to make the usual acknowledgments,
F. T. J.
PORTSMOUTH.
1904.