Sato Tetsutaro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sato Tetsutaro | |
|---|---|
| 22 August 1866 – 4 March 1942 | |
|
Japanese Admiral Sato Tetsutaro |
|
| Place of birth | Tsuruoka, Dewa province, Japan |
| Place of death | Tokyo, Japan |
| Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
| Years of service | 1887–1931 |
| Rank | Vice Admiral |
| Commands | Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Battles/wars | First Sino-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War World War I |
| Other work | House of Peers |
Baron Testutaro Sato (佐藤鉄太郎 Sato Tetsutaro?) (22 August 1866 – 4 March 1942) was a Japanese military theorist and an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Born in the Tsuruoka domain, Dewa Province (present day Yamagata prefecture), Sato graduated from the 14th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1887. Serving as chief navigator aboard the gunboat IJN Akagi during the First Sino-Japanese War, Sato took command of the vessel when its captain was killed during the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 17 September 1894. Sato himself was wounded in the battle.
Assigned to Admiral Gonnohyoe Yamamoto's staff within the Navy Ministry's Naval Affairs Department in 1896, Sato was sent to study naval strategy in Great Britain from 1899-1901 and in the United States from 1901 - 1902. Upon his return to Japan, he published On the Defense of the Empire while an instructor at the Naval War College, which advocated the Navy as the main force of national security and military strength.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Sato served as a staff officer of the IJN 2nd Fleet under Vice Admiral Hikonojo Kamimura. While onboard on the flagship IJN Izumo, Sato took part in the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima. Following the war, Sato commanded the gunboat IJN Tatsuta for less than a year before returning to Naval War College as an advanced student, and later serving as an instructor from 1906 to 1908.
After winning promotion to captain in 1907, Sato published several revised editions and expanded on his initial 1903 thesis including History of Naval Defense (1907), History of the Empire's Defense (1908), and the Revised History of the Empire's Defense (1912). Sato has been called "the Mahan of Japan", as his writings emphasized that the key to Japan's safety was denial of power projection by hypothetical enemies (such as the United States), into waters adjacent to the Japanese islands.
Sato's works, along with documents of the Navy Ministry regarding policy, would form the basis of the Japanese naval expansion into the East Indies, using elements from naval plans developed by US Admiral Alfred T. Mahan and British Vice Admiral Philip Howard Colomb. He also began urging the Japanese government to maintain a 70% capital ships level over the United States, Japan’s hypothetical rival.
Sato was promoted to rear admiral in 1912, while at the Navy War College, as well as serving at sea between 1908 until 1914. The following year after Japan's entry into World War I, Sato was appointed Vice Chief of the Navy General Staff in 1915, and promoted to vice admiral the next year while serving as president of the Navy War College.
Leaving the Navy War College in 1920, Sato commanded the Maizuru naval district before being placed on the inactive list in 1922. Named to the House of Peers in 1934, Sato was a major opponent to Japan's participation in the Washington Naval Treaty following World War I until his death in 1942.
