Tōgō Heihachirō
Japanese admiral of the fleet (1848–1934)
Marshal-Admiral Marquis Tōgō Heihachirō (Japanese: 東郷 平八郎) (27 January 1848 – 30 May 1934), served as a gensui in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. As Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, he successfully confined the Russian Pacific naval forces to Port Arthur before winning a decisive victory over a relieving fleet at Tsushima in May 1905. He remains deeply revered as a national hero in Japan, with shrines and streets named in his honour.
Quotes
edit- Defeat is a common fate of a soldier and there is nothing to be ashamed of in it.
- The gods award the crown to those who, by their training in peacetime, are victorious even before they go into battle.
- Excerpt from farewell speech, "Togo Ignites The Rising Sun: How The Japanese Admiral Turned Defeat Into Victory" in History Net (20 April 2018)
- But our duties as naval men are not at all lightened for that reason. To preserve in perpetuity the fruits of this war; to promote to an ever greater height of prosperity the fortunes of the country, the navy, which, irrespective of peace or war, has to stand between the Empire and shocks from abroad, must always maintain its strength at sea and must be prepared to meet emergency.
- The triumphs recently won by our Navy are largely to be attributed to the training which enabled us to garner the fruits of the fighting. If then we infer the future from the past, we recognize that though war may ceases we can not abandon ourselves to ease and rest.
- A soldier's whole life is one continuous and unceasing battle, and there is no reason why his responsibilities should vary with the state of the times. In days of crisis he has to display his strength; in days of peace to accumulate it, thus perpetually and uniquely discharging his duties to the full. It was no light task that during the past year and a half we fought with wind and waves, encountered heat and cold, and kept the sea while frequently engaging a stubborn enemy in a death or life struggle; yet, when we reflect, this is seen to have been only one in a long series of general maneuvers, wherein we had the happiness to make some discoveries; happiness which throws into comparative insignificance the hardships of war. If men calling themselves sailors grasp at the pleasure of peace, they will learn the lesson that however fine in appearance their engines of war, these, like a house built on the sand, will fall at the first approach of the storm.
- For such lessons, whether ancient or modern, Occidental or Oriental, though to some extent they are the outcome of political happenings, must be regarded as in the main the natural result of whether the soldier remembers war in the day of peace.
- We naval men who have survived the war must take these examples deeply to heart, and adding to the training which we have already received our actual experiences in the war, must plan future developments and seek not to fall behind the progress of the time. If, keeping the instructions of our Sovereign ever graven on our hearts, we serve earnestly and diligently, and putting forth our full strength, await what the hour may bring forth, we shall then have discharged our great duty of perpetually guarding our country.
- Heaven gives the crown of victory to those only who by habitual preparation win without fighting, and at the same time forthwith deprives of that crown those who, content with one success, give themselves up to the ease of peace.
