Range, Germany, and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance

Asahi's range supported a fleet that could cruise together and then combine battleships and armored cruisers in combat. Japan wanted its armored cruisers to conduct the cruising mission without leaving the battle fleet too far away to reinforce them. By this stage China was no longer the central naval problem; German ambitions in the Pacific and American power also shaped Japanese planning and interest in a British alliance. A German 'place in the sun' image was reportedly interpreted in Japan as placing the Japanese sun in the background, showing how symbols could be read as strategic threats. The account is second-hand and comes from another historian rather than personal examination of the image.