June 13, 1923: “’Save the Mikasa’ — Notes By A Week-end Rambler”: The effort to save the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Mikasa, which served as the flagship throughout the Russo-Japanese War, began. Click to read June 14, 1923: “Save the Mikasa”: The Japan Times amplifies the call of the Rambler. Click to read July 21, 1923: The Japan Times launched a campaign to preserve the Mikasa after receiving a letter from the wife of a military officer at the American Embassy in Tokyo. Click to read Dec. 29, 1924: “Saved For Future Generations”: “America Gives Her Consent — Joins Other Powers In Sending Word That Mikasa May Be Spared” Click to read Feb. 7, 1926: “The Mikasa is Saved for Japan” Click to read Feb. 26, 1932: “The Battleship ‘Mikasa’ Is Preserved”: The article covered donations to the Mikasa Memorial Preservation Society. Click to read Sept. 24, 1955, Readers in Council: “Flagship Mikasa — Then and Now”: Businessman John Rubin saw the Mikasa in a state of disrepair and wrote a letter that led to the ship’s preservation in its present form. Click to read Dec. 18, 2011: “How The Japan Times saved a foundering battleship, twice” Click to read
Mikasa! The name of the powerful Japanese battleship is well known to the world’s naval historians.
The Mikasa’s highly acclaimed victories at sea over a century ago are largely overshadowed by the history of subsequent repeated efforts to preserve the ship. In the past, lack of funding, international treaty agreements and simple oblivion have caused old steel-hulled vessels to fall into disrepair and even be threatened with dismantling. Nevertheless, every time such a crisis occurred, a group of supporters was set up to fight for the protection of the ship.
Perhaps surprisingly, the community has been led by The Japan Times staff and readers twice, in the 1920s and 1950s.
