Jonathan Clements will examine the life and achievements of one of Japan’s first modern international celebrities, Admiral Togo Heihachiro (1848-1934), from his teenage participation in the “Anglo-Satsuma War” of 1863, through his youth as a student at a British maritime school, and his long career in the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 1905, after Tōgō’s defeat of the Tsar’s fleet at the Battle of Tsushima, he was hailed as the “Nelson of the East” and an honorary Englishman; his flagship, the Mikasa, can still be found at the Yokosuka dockside.

Jonathan Clements is the author of many books on Asian history and culture, including Admiral Togo: Nelson of the East, Japan at War in the Pacific: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1868-1945 and A Brief History of Japan. He has presented three seasons of Route Awakening, a TV series about icons of Chinese history and culture for National Geographic. After speaking to us last year about the samurai, Dr Clements returns to YCAPS to discuss the famous “silent admiral” who charmed the British, sank the Russians, and scolded Theodore Roosevelt for inadequate care of a samurai sword.