page_title: Z flag
section_title: Military uses
hierarchical_section_title: Z flag / In Japan / Military uses
caption_attribution_description: Mikasa fukuho
context_page_description: The Z flag is one of the international maritime signal flags.
context_section_description: The Z flag has special meaning in Japan (as well as in naval history generally) due to its connection with and symbolizing of the great Japanese victory at the Battle of Tsushima.
  At the Battle of Tsushima on May 27, 1905, Admiral Tōgō raised a Z flag on his flagship Mikasa. By prearrangement, this flag flown alone meant, "The fate of the Empire rests on the outcome of this battle. Let each man do his utmost." The Battle of Tsushima was one of the most important naval battles of history and this signal is, along with Nelson's signal "England expects that every man will do his duty" at the Battle of Trafalgar, one of the two most famous naval flag signals; the battle is of especial importance in Japanese national mythology.
  The Z flag was raised on Vice-Admiral Nagumo's flagship Akagi before the aircraft were flown off for the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor (called Operation Z in its planning stages), explicitly referencing Tōgō's historic victory.
  John Toland, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning work The Rising Sun, maintains, though, that the Z flag was raised only briefly:
  According to Toland, the Z flag was also raised on Akagi at the Battle of Midway and from the doomed flagship Zuikaku of Ozawa's sacrificial Northern Force at the Battle off Cape Engaño.
  According to Lieutenant Commander (later Admiral) Sadeo Chigusa, executive officer of the escorting Japanese destroyer Akigumo, the D and G flags were raised aboard Akagi before the Pearl Harbor attack, as these flags together had in 1941 the same meaning as the Z flag in 1905.
  According to Samuel Elliot Morrison, the Z flag flown at Pearl Harbor was the actual one used at Tsushima.
  From 1905 to 1945, the Z flag was used as an unofficial naval ensign. This practice was revived in 2011. Planes of the 3rd squadron of the 252nd Naval Air Group wore the Z flag on their vertical stabilizers during the Pacific War.
caption: The Z flag (small flag at top left) is still flown daily from the signal yardarm of Mikasa, now a museum ship
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