Memorial Ship Mikasa

The Mikasa is the only surviving pre-dreadnought battleship in the world and is preserved as a museum ship in Mikasa Park in the Japanese naval city of Yokosuka. She served as flagship of Admiral Togo Heihachiro at the 1905 Battle of Tsushima, where the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyed the Russian Baltic Fleet - one of the most consequential naval battles of the 20th century and the starting point of Japan's subsequent emergence as a great power. The ship is named after Mount Mikasa near Nara. Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty she was disarmed in 1923 and embedded ashore in Yokosuka; after looting and decay during the immediate post-war years she was restored as a memorial from 1961 with American support. Going aboard today, visitors explore the bridge, captain's quarters and gun turrets and view historical photographs of Tsushima, all set within a small park around a statue of Togo.