Mikasa Historic Memorial Warship — Attraction in Yokosuka

To all objective people who know some history of last 200 years, can anyone explain to me how to objectively claim, with very high level of integrity and intellectual honesty, that a country is defending its sovereignty when most of the land battles the country's army engaged in during a war occurred on another (weaker) country's land (China, and China was NOT a combatant of the war)? If you have difficulty defending this with high integrity, conviction and a straight face then you will understand, without any difficulty, why I gave this place a low rating (I would give negative 20 rating if I could).

I give this place a low rating because this is a another good example of how Japan, even today, still white wash history - just like how Japan has never fully accepted responsibility for what it did during 1931 to 1945 (Nanjing Massacre, “Comfort” women, others, I can go on and on). (Also see my review on the former Japanese Navy Headquarters in Okinawa).

The introduction & exhibit in this ship museum state that the Russo-Japanese War (of 1904 to 1905), which this ship participated in, is a significant event in Japan’s history because it united & motivated Japan to "defend its sovereignty". Yes it was a war between those 2 countries (imperialistic at the time) but they fought over their spoils from their other prior invasions coercions of China - when they beat up a weaker country and took lands and other interests from China by force and coercions. Also, add insult to injury, most of the land battles took place over Chinese territories (and a few in Korea); atrocities against Chinese citizens and destruction of many Chinese properties also took place.

“Defending its sovereignty” MY ASS!!!! This war had NOTHING to do with “defending sovereignty”. It’s a contest to grab more and it was Chinese blood and many properties destroyed that ultimately paid the price that resulted due to the greed of 2 imperialist countries. “Defending its...

As a a person who enjoys history and military ships thoroughly, I was a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it was cool to see a ship with so much history and such a crucial role, but I expected more. The ship needs some paint and maybe more decoration, as it looks empty and forgotten. At least you can climb to the upper parts, which is nice. Once inside you have plenty of informative panels, but many of these are only in japanese, which is weird considering that many others are translated. They have audiovisual content like short documentaries and vr films, but their age is really obvious, and some simply don't work. Overall, I got the feeling that so much more could be done. It seems like this ship is treated first and foremost like a Japanese national treasure, which it is, but I think that they should go further, and treat it like what it is: the last pre-dreadnought battleship in the world. I feel like they put too much focus on the russo-japanese war, forgetting other aspects: how did the sailors live? How did the ship work? Why did this kind of ship become obsolete?

And this leads me to the last part of my complaint, which is the general tone of the museum. They constantly talk greatly about the gallantry of the sailors who fought to defend Japanese sovereignty against Russian imperialism, which in turn was a pivotal moment in anti-colonial history. Sorry, but no. Japan fought and imperialist war against another imperialist power. Japanese independence was not at risk, the control over Korea was. I attached some pictures of panels with particularly egregious comments. It's a shame that the people who manage the museum can't accept the fact that Japan was as rabidly imperialist as the westerners.

All in all, I would only recommend it to people who really enjoy history and big guns. Otherwise, not really. At...

Awesome museum ship for any naval history enthusiast! Decent amount of English signage too. I'd take off half a star since this being a Japanese war museum, there is a measure of chest-thumping and historical revisionnism; one of the panels claims the Japanese victory in Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905 helped advance Afro-American cause... There also isn't much to be seen from the ship per se (no access to the engine room, main turrets, etc), as another reviewer remarked. And many parts of the ship are reconstructed in the 1950s-1960s so many parts of the ship aren't original. Still the museum still receives some love from the owners as there is a cute little panorama with little ships representing the moment Togo did his famous turn (reminds me of Christmas trains). They also have a gaming room allowing you to replay the battle of Tsushima and a few VR sets allowing you to stand in Togo's shoes as he completes his turn (no interaction in that one though, just visuals). There is a small museum shop with the usual associated goodies. The prepainted and assembled display model was disappointingly ugly for 2700 yen but they also stocked up Fujimi 1/700 plastic hobby kit and a deluxe display model with sounds for 20 000 yen. Expect lots of Togo and Zulu flag merchandise too. Be sure to bring binoculars as you can see JMSDF and USN ships pulling into nearby Yokosuka naval bases or sortieying if you're lucky enough (a 10 minutes away by walk park provides a better view though). 600 yen entry, closes at 5:30 PM (last...