The Imperial Japanese Navy

With nearly 140 modern ships and submarines, today's Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force has one of the largest fleets in the world.

For over half a century, it has stood shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. Navy, defending the waters of far east Asia, and the vital sea lanes surrounding the Japanese islands. And yet previous to this, these two forces were locked in the largest and most destructive naval war in history - World War II. At that time, the Imperial Japanese Navy was an awesome war machine that, ship for ship, may well have been the finest navy in the world.

Its leaders had a warrior mindset shaped by a rich cultural tradition of the spiritual and martial discipline of the Samurai. Steeped in this heritage, the Imperial Navy helped take Japan from a closed, feudal society-to the very brink of world empire.
"The Imperial Japanese Navy: Kaigun" dramatizes the rise, fall, and rise of one of the most remarkable naval forces in all of history.Tracing the heritage of the Imperial Japanese Navy from its origins in a Mongol invasion in the 13th century, through its stunning rise under the influence of Great Britain and the United States during the 19th century, to its amazing victories and ultimate-total-defeat in World War 2, today's Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force has risen to again become one of the strongest and finest navies in the world.