As a teenage samurai, Tōgō Heihachirō witnessed the destruction wrought upon his native land by British warships. Later, as the legendary ‘Silent Admiral’, he was at the forefront of innovations in warfare, pioneering the Japanese use of modern gunnery and wireless communication. Best known as the ‘Nelson of the East’ for his resounding victory over the Tsar’s navy in the Russo–Japanese War, he also lived a remarkable life – studying at an English maritime college and witnessing the Sino–French War, the Hawaiian Revolution, and the Boxer Uprising.

This biography spans Japan’s sudden, violent leap out of its self-imposed isolation and into the 20th century. Delving beyond Tōgō’s finest hour at the Battle of Tsushima, it shines new light on his reluctant celebrity in America and the accumulation of peacetime experience that forged a wartime hero.