Delorme, Pierre, Les Grandes Batailles de l'Histoire, Port-Arthur 1904, Socomer Editions (French) Dull, Paul S. (1978) A Battle History of The Imperial Japanese Navy Evans, David C. & Peattie, Mark R. (1997) Kaigun: strategy, tactics, and technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941 Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland Gardiner, Robert (editor) (2001) Steam, Steel and Shellfire, The Steam Warship 1815–1905, Howe, Christopher (1996) The origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy, Development and technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War, The University of Chicago Press Ireland, Bernard (1996) Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century Lyon, D. J. (1976) World War II warships, Excalibur Books Nagazumi, Yōko (永積洋子) Red Seal Ships (朱印船), (Japanese) Tōgō Shrine and Tōgō Association (東郷神社・東郷会), Togo Heihachiro in images, illustrated Meiji Navy (図説東郷平八郎、目で見る明治の海軍), (Japanese)Japanese submarines 潜水艦大作戦, Jinbutsu publishing (新人物従来社) (Japanese) Notes Video footage of the Sino-Japanese war: Video (external link) . :魏略：「倭人自謂太伯之後。」 /晉書：「自謂太伯之後，又言上古使詣中國，皆自稱大夫。」 列傳第六十七 四夷 /資治通鑑：「今日本又云呉太伯之後，蓋呉亡，其支庶入海為倭。」 Nagazumi Red Seal Ships, p21 THE FIRST IRONCLADS In Japanese: , . Also in English: : "Iron clad ships, however, were not new to Japan and Hideyoshi; Oda Nobunaga, in fact, had many iron clad ships in his fleet." (referring to the anteriority of Japanese ironclads (1578) to the Korean Turtle ships (1592)). In Western sources, Japanese ironclads are described in CR Boxer "The Christian Century in Japan 1549-1650", p122, quoting the account of the Italian Jesuit Organtino visiting Japan in 1578. Nobunaga's ironclad fleet is also described in "A History of Japan, 1334-1615", Georges Samson, p309 . Korea's "ironclad Turtle ships" were invented by Admiral Yi Sun-sin (1545–1598), and are first documented in 1592. Incidentally, Korea's iron plates only covered the roof (to prevent intrusion), and not the sides of their ships. The first Western ironclads date to 1859 with the French Gloire ("Steam, Steel and Shellfire"). Corbett Maritime Operations in the Russo-Japanese War'', 2:333 Howe, p286 External links Nobunaga's ironclad navy Hiroshi Nishida's IJN site Imperial Japanese Navy Page JSDF video commercial the russojapanese war society homepage Imperial Japanese Navy Awards of the Golden Kite in World War 2, a Note