Tōgō fought at Awa, Miyako Bay, and Hakodate while serving aboard Kasuga. An ironclad took the leading role at Miyako Bay, but steam corvettes such as Kasuga were prominent in the other actions and in shore bombardment. By age twenty-one he had already accumulated roughly eight years of service and six as a combat veteran. That compressed apprenticeship resembled the early wartime careers of Royal Navy officers in the Napoleonic era.
Chapter · 11:00-13:18
A naval apprenticeship in the Boshin War
Service aboard the steam corvette Kasuga exposed Tōgō to three early Japanese naval battles and repeated combat before he entered his twenties.