ABSTRACT
On a brisk autumn day in November 1913, Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonnohyōe looked out to sea and smiled. Assembled before the retired admiral-turned-national politician was one of the largest naval flotillas that would grace Tokyo Bay in Yamamoto’s lifetime. The vessels, the pride and joy of the Imperial Japanese Navy which by then included the world’s most powerful and technologically advanced battleship, the Kongo, had gathered for the most impressive Grand Manoeuvre of the fleet since Japan’s victory celebration after defeating the Russians in the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. Assembled both to showcase the newly arrived Kongo and to ‘launch’ the prime minister’s massive 350 million yen naval expansion bill, which was scheduled for introduction in the next session of the Diet, the nationalistic naval pageant was, as one Tōkyō asahi (Tokyo Morning Sun) reporter asserted, a truly magnificent spectacle. 1
