Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: When was the Imperial Japanese Navy formed?
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: 大日本帝國海軍 Shinjitai: 大日本帝国海軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun "Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire", or 日本海軍 Nippon Kaigun, "Japanese Navy") was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 until 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's defeat and surrender in World War II. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) was formed after the dissolution of the IJN.[1]
When the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Manchuria in 1931, they were accompanied by a detachment from the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), which provided for coastal defense. However, the main naval requirement for Manchuria was the defense of its extensive border river system with the Soviet Union. Immediately after the Manchurian Incident of 1931, Kuomintang Northeastern Navy Vice-Minister Shen Hung-lieh and Fleet Commander Hsien Kung-che deserted their posts. Local Kuomintang commander Captain Yin Tsu-Ch'ien met with Japanese forces and agreed to turn over his fleet of five river gunboats to the Imperial Japanese Navy in Harbin on 15 February 1932. This flotilla formed the core of the Sungari River Defense Fleet (江防艦隊) under the State of Manchuria.
Defeat at the Philippine Sea was a disaster for Japanese naval air power with American pilots terming the slanted air/sea battle the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, mostly going in the favor of the U.S.,[127] while the battle of Leyte Gulf led to the destruction of a large part of the surface fleet.[128] During the last phase of the war, the Imperial Japanese Navy resorted to a series of desperate measures, including a variety of Special Attack Units which were popularly called kamikaze.[129] By May 1945, most of the Imperial Japanese Navy had been sunk and the remnants had taken refuge in Japan's harbors.[128] By July 1945, the Nagato was the only remaining ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy's capital ships that had not been sunk in raids by the United States Navy.
First established on 28 December 1903, the IJN 1st Fleet was created during the Russo-Japanese War when the Imperial General Headquarters divided the Readiness Fleet into a mobile strike force of cruisers and destroyers to pursue the Imperial Russian Navy's Vladivostok-based cruiser squadron (the Imperial Japanese Navys 2nd Fleet), while the remaining bulk of the Japanese fleet (the IJN 1st Fleet) continued to blockade Port Arthur in hopes of luring the battleships of the Russian Pacific Fleet out into a classic line-of-battle confrontation. The two fleets were combined into the Combined Fleet for the final Battle of Tsushima.
The decisive victory of the Japanese fleet over the Imperial Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima validated the doctrine of the "decisive victory", or "kantai kessen" as stipulated by naval theorists such as Alfred Thayer Mahan and Satō Tetsutarō in the eyes of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, and future naval procurement and deployment was centered on refinements of this doctrine. The Mahanian objective was to build a fleet in being, a naval force kept deliberately in strategic reserve, as secondary forces based on cruisers and destroyers waged a campaign of attrition against an approaching enemy, who would then be destroyed in a climatic final battle similar to the Battle of Tsushima.
As a result of this doctrine, although individual ships and task forces were dispatched on occasion for specific combat operations, the main force in the Imperial Japanese Navy was mostly held in reserve from the time of its inception until near the end of World War II.
The Imperial Japanese Navy further intervened in China in 1900 by participating, together with Western Powers, in the suppression of the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. The Navy supplied the largest number of warships (18 out of a total of 50) and delivered the largest contingent of troops among the intervening nations (20,840 Imperial Japanese Army and Navy soldiers, out of a total of 54,000).[49][50]
On 26 March 1868, the first Naval Review was held in Japan (in Osaka Bay), with 6 ships from the private domainal navies of Saga, Chōshū, Satsuma, Kurume, Kumamoto and Hiroshima participating. The total tonnage of these ships was 2,252 tons, far smaller than the tonnage of the single foreign vessel (from the French Navy) that also participated. In July 1869, the Imperial Japanese Navy was formally established, two months after the last military engagement of the Boshin War – the private navies of the Japanese nobles were abolished and their 11 ships were added to the 7 surviving vessels of the defunct Tokugawa bakufu navy, including Kankō Maru, Japan's first steam warship.[9] This formed the core of the new Imperial Japanese Navy.
Admiral of the Fleet (Japan) Carrier Striking Task Force Combined Fleet Fleet Faction – Navy political group Imperial Japanese Naval Academy Imperial Japanese Navy Armor Units Imperial Japanese Navy Aviation Bureau Imperial Japanese Navy bases and facilities Imperial Japanese Navy fuel Imperial Japanese Navy Land Forces Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors Imperial Way Faction Japanese nationalism Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces Kaientai List of Japanese Navy ships and war vessels in World War II Marshal (Japan) May 15 Incident – coup d'état with Navy support "Strike South" Doctrine Ranks of the Imperial Japanese Navy Recruitment in the Imperial Japanese Navy Tokkeitai – Navy Military Police Tomogashima Treaty Faction – Navy political group
The Imperial General Headquarters was established by Imperial Decree 52 on 19 May 1893 under the auspices of creating a central command for both the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff. The Emperor of Japan who was defined as both Head of State and the Generalissimo of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces according to the Meiji Constitution of 1889 to 1945, was the head of the Imperial General Headquarters, and was assisted by staff appointed from the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy.
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world by 1920, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy (USN).[2] It was supported by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for aircraft and airstrike operation from the fleet. It was the primary opponent of the Western Allies in the Pacific War.
Three years after its composition, Setoguchi made an instrumental arrangement of the song for the Imperial Japanese Navy Band where he served as its bandleader. The march was subsequently adopted as the Imperial Japanese Navy's official march. The Warship March was performed in Europe during the Imperial Japanese Navy Band's tour of Europe in 1907.
This is a list of fleets of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the navy of the Empire of Japan. This navy existed from 1868 to 1945, when it was replaced by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
, was a steam ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed by Thomas Blake Glover and built in Scotland for the private navy of the fief of Kumamoto, where it was called the "Jo Sho Maru". It was delivered to the new Imperial Japanese Navy on 8 May 1870, and sailed from Nagasaki to Yokohama with a British captain, and named , later called . Until the commissioning of the ironclad in 1878, she was the flagship (and the most powerful ship) of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
During the Imperial period until 1945 the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy had operated their own air services, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. There was no independent Imperial Japanese Air Force. During the post-war occupation from 1945–1952 there was no Japanese military, with security for the country being provided by the occupation forces. Even afterwards, US forces based in the country continued to provide security for Japan.
"Sivuch" spent the winter of 1903-1904 iced in with the Royal Navy sloop-of-war and a United States Navy gunboat at Newchwang at the mouth of the Liao River on the Gulf of Pechili coast of Manchuria. The three vessels were there when the Russo-Japanese War broke out in February 1904. When the ice broke up in the spring of 1904, "Espiegle" and the U.S. Navy gunboat left, but "Sivuch" remained. Newchwang and the Liao River were in Chinese territory, so initially the Russians disarmed "Sivuch" in recognition of Chinese neutrality, but as their concern over the possibility of a Japanese landing in the vicinity of Newchwang grew, they occupied the Newchwang area and rearmed "Sivuch". "Sivuch"′s presence at Newchwang and on the Liao River was a matter of concern to the Imperial Japanese Navy during the early months of the war. As Imperial Japanese Army forces advanced on Newchwang and the Liao River in the summer of 1904, her presence became a concern for Japanese ground forces as well. 
In 1873 a short-lived marine corps was added to the newly created Imperial Japanese Navy, using Britain's Royal Marines as a model. Considered unsuitable in its original form this force was disbanded in 1878.
Both the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army subsequently established marine-type units. Both were dissolved at the end of World War II and Japan does not currently have marines as such.
Since the historical triumph of the Battle of the Japanese Sea in 1905, as a part of the Russo-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Navy had been the world’s third strongest. By the end of World War I Japan had a powerful battle fleet. In the 1930s, following the Washington Naval Treaty, Japan built a strong naval aviation arm with excellent aircraft and pilots. Even so, the Imperial Japanese Navy could not compete against the Royal Navy and the United States Navy, the top two navies in the world. Consequently, the much smaller Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and the Regia Marina (Italian Navy) could not defeat these two dominants. Furthermore, the Imperial Japanese Navy had been made overconfident by its victory in the Naval Battle of the Japanese Sea and was not willing to acknowledge its inferiority. However, his unique experiences made him convinced of his view. Therefore, Yonai clearly announced his opinion: the Imperial Japanese Navy will lose if it attacked the Royal Navy and the United States Navy.
On May 29, 1945, he accepted a position on the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, and was the final CINC of the Imperial Japanese Navy until the end of the war in September 1945. He refused a promotion to full admiral, and remained as vice admiral until the final dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
The Imperial Japanese Navy () built four battlecruisers, with plans for an additional four, during the first decades of the 20th century. The battlecruiser was an outgrowth of the armoured cruiser concept, which had proved highly successful against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima at the end of the Russo-Japanese War. In the aftermath, the Japanese immediately turned their focus to the two remaining rivals for imperial dominance in the Pacific Ocean: Britain and the United States. Japanese naval planners calculated that in any conflict with the U.S. Navy, Japan would need a fleet at least 70 percent as strong as the United States' in order to emerge victorious. To that end, the concept of the Eight-Eight fleet was developed, where eight battleships and eight battlecruisers would form a cohesive battle line. Similar to the German Imperial Navy () and in contrast to the Royal Navy, the Japanese envisioned and designed battlecruisers that could operate alongside more heavily armoured battleships to counter numerical superiority.
Also forming part of the basis for the growth of militarism was the freedom from civilian control enjoyed by the Japanese armed forces. In 1878, the Imperial Japanese Army established the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff office, modeled after the Prussian General Staff. This office was independent of, and equal (and later superior) to the Ministry of War of Japan in terms of authority. The Imperial Japanese Navy soon followed with the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff. These General Staff offices were responsible for the planning and execution of military operations, and reported directly to the emperor. As the Chiefs of the General Staff were not cabinet ministers, they did not report to the Prime Minister of Japan, and were thus completely independent of any civilian oversight or control.
Construction of the medium-sized "Momi"-class destroyers was authorized as part of the Imperial Japanese Navy's 8-4 Fleet Program from fiscal 1918-1920, as an accompaniment to the larger with which they shared many common design characteristics. These vessels were produced at a several shipyards around Japan, and when formed into attack squadrons of two to four vessels, made up the backbone of the inter-war Imperial Japanese Navy.
The Chief of the Army General Staff was the senior ranking uniformed officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and enjoyed, along with the War Minister, the Navy Minister, and the Chief of the Navy General Staff, direct access to the Emperor. In wartime, the Imperial Army General Staff formed part of the army section of the Imperial General Headquarters, an "ad hoc" body under the supervision of the emperor created to assist in coordinating overall command.
The formed the primary carrier fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), a grouping of naval aircraft and aircraft carriers that at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet. As losses mounted, the carriers were removed and the 1st Air Fleet was transformed into a land based Naval aviation force forward based on islands and land masses along the perimeter of the Japanese controlled sphere.
These fleets were under the command of the Ministry of the Navy, Imperial General Headquarters or Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff.
Sasebo has been a naval base since 1883, when Lieutenant Commander Tōgō Heihachirō nominated the small fishing village to form the nucleus of a base for the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 1905, ships of the Japanese Navy under Admiral Togo sailed from Sasebo to combat the Russian Baltic Fleet, leading to victory for Togo at the Battle of Tsushima.
The Imperial Japanese Navy had approximately 60,000 people working in the dock yard and associated naval stations at the peak of World War II, outfitting ships, submarines and aircraft. Sasebo was a popular liberty port for navy personnel.
The Kashi was a Japanese destroyer of the Momo-class, built in Japan, that served in the last part of World War One, and throughout World War Two, as part of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the Imperial Manchukuo Navy, before being returned to the Imperial Japanese Navy.