Z Flag

110 years ago, aboard his flagship HIJMS Mikasa, Admiral Togo raised the Z (Zulu) flag before the Battle of Tsushima.  While the Zulu flag usually means "I require a tug" or "I am shooting nets," it had a special meaning in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN): "The fate of the empire depends on the result of this battle; let every man do his utmost."  Admiral Togo, who was a great admiral of Lord Nelson, wanted to emulate the British admiral's signal "England expects that every man will do his duty" flown a century before at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.  The flag seems to have motivated the Japanese fleet, which defeated the Russian fleet in the May 1905 battle, and was later used in World War II.  It was flown before the 1941 raid on Pearl Harbor (Japanese tactical victory), the 1942 Battle of Midway (Japanese strategic defeat), and the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf (Japanese strategic defeat).  This replica of the Z flag is on display aboard HIJMS Mikasa, which is now a museum ship in Yokosuka.