The Z flag is one of the international maritime signal flags.
The Z flag is one of the international maritime signal flags.
In the system of international maritime signal flags, part of the International Code of Signals, the Z flag stands for the letter Z ("Zulu" in the NATO Alphabet) when used in letter-by-letter alphabetic communication. When used alone, it means "I require a tug" or, when used by fishing vessels near fishing grounds, "I am shooting nets".
The Z flag when combined with four number flags (The leading two denoting hours, the trailing two denoting minutes) indicates Z Time (also called Zulu Time), a military and maritime term for Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)+0 (also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)) expressed on a 24 hour clock. Thus this would mean 0800Z ("zero eight hundred zulu") equivalent to 08:00 UTC: [1]
Or, more likely, the same information would be conveyed using repeat flags:
Under yacht racing rules, display of the Z flag indicates that a particular false start rule, the 20% Penalty Rule 30.2, is in effect: a boat on the course side (OCS) – that is, over the starting line – during the minute before the start will receive a 20% scoring penalty. [2]
The Z flag has special meaning in Japan (as well as in naval history generally) due to its connection with and symbolizing of the 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. [3] 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." (「皇國ノ興廢此ノ一戰ニ在リ、各員一層奮勵努力セヨ」). 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. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
The carrier turned to port and headed into the northerly wind. The battle flag was now added to the 'Z' flag flying at the masthead... On the flight deck a green lamp was waved in a circle to signal 'Take off!'
John Toland, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning work The Rising Sun , maintains, though, that the Z flag was raised only briefly:
Admiral Kusaka ordered the Z flag raised above the Akagi. This was an exact copy of the one Tōgō had used at Tsushima, but in the intervening years it had become an ordinary tactical signal... several staff officers, including Genda, protested when they saw it go up. It would cause confusion. Reluctantly Kusaka revoked the command and ordered another flag raised that vaguely resembled Tōgō's signal.
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. [10]
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. [11]
According to Samuel Eliot Morison, the Z flag flown at Pearl Harbor was the actual one used at Tsushima. [7] However, the Tōgō Shrine in Tokyo claims that its Z flag is Togo's original, having been stored in England from 1911 to 2005. [12] [ better source needed ]
From 1905 to 1945, the Z flag was used as an unofficial naval ensign. This practice was revived in 2011.[ citation needed ]
During Project Z, the development of the Nissan Z-car which broke open the American market for Japanese automobile exports, project leader Yutaka Katayama used the Z flag as an inspirational symbol. [13] During the strong yen crisis[ clarification needed ], the Nagasaki yards of Oshima Shipbuilding flew the Z flag to inspire the workers.[ citation needed ] The logo of the Japanese multinational corporation Zuken is partly based on the Z flag. [14]
The Z flag is sometimes waved by fans at Japanese sporting events as an exhortation to victory for their favored team.[ citation needed ] It is also used as a symbol by some fringe right-wing groups in Japan.[ citation needed ]
In the 1912 Battle of Elli against the Ottoman Navy, the Greek commander, Pavlos Kountouriotis, raised the Z flag as a signal for the independent movement of his flagship, the cruiser Georgios Averof. Leaving the older and slower Hydra-class ironclads behind, the much faster Georgios Averof manoeuvred independently and on its own "crossed the T" of the Ottoman fleet, forcing it to retreat into the Dardanelles. The emblem of the Kortenaer-class frigate Kountouriotis features the Z flag in commemoration of this.
The Battle of Tsushima, also known in Japan as the Battle of the Sea of Japan, was the final naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 27–28 May 1905 in the Tsushima Strait. A devastating defeat for the Imperial Russian Navy, the battle was the only decisive engagement ever fought between modern steel battleship fleets and the first in which wireless telegraphy (radio) played a critically important role. The battle was described by contemporary Sir George Clarke as "by far the greatest and the most important naval event since Trafalgar".
Tora! Tora! Tora! is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, from the American and Japanese positions. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, and stars an ensemble cast including Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, So Yamamura, E.G. Marshall, James Whitmore, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takahiro Tamura, Wesley Addy, and Jason Robards. It was Masuda and Fukasaku's first English-language film, and first international co-production. The tora of the title, although literally meaning "tiger", is actually an abbreviation of a two-syllable codeword, used to indicate that complete surprise had been achieved.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the United States, just before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941. At the time, the United States was a neutral country in World War II. The attack on Hawaii and other U.S. territories led the United States to formally enter World War II on the side of the Allies the day following the attack, on December 8, 1941. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning.
Akagi was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Though she was laid down as an Amagi-class battlecruiser, Akagi was converted to an aircraft carrier while still under construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship was rebuilt from 1935 to 1938 with her original three flight decks consolidated into a single enlarged flight deck and an island superstructure. The second Japanese aircraft carrier to enter service, and the first large or "fleet" carrier, Akagi and the related Kaga figured prominently in the development of the IJN's new carrier striking force doctrine that grouped carriers together, concentrating their air power. This doctrine enabled Japan to attain its strategic goals during the early stages of the Pacific War from December 1941 until mid-1942.
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International maritime signal flags are various flags used to communicate with ships. The principal system of flags and associated codes is the International Code of Signals. Various navies have flag systems with additional flags and codes, and other flags are used in special uses, or have historical significance.
The Naval Battle of Lemnos, fought on 18 January [O.S. 5 January] 1913, was a naval battle during the First Balkan War, in which the Greeks defeated the second and last attempt of the Ottoman Empire to break the Greek naval blockade of the Dardanelles and reclaim supremacy over the Aegean Sea. This, the final naval battle of the First Balkan War, forced the Ottoman Navy to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war, thus ensuring the dominion of the Aegean Sea and the Aegean islands by Greece.
Various unproven conspiracy theories allege that U.S. government officials had advance knowledge of Japan's December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. Ever since the Japanese attack, there has been debate as to why and how the United States was caught off guard, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans for an attack. In September 1944, John T. Flynn, a co-founder of the non-interventionist America First Committee, launched a Pearl Harbor counter-narrative when he published a 46-page booklet entitled The Truth about Pearl Harbor, arguing that Roosevelt and his inner circle had been plotting to provoke the Japanese into an attack on the U.S. and thus provide a reason to enter the war since January 1941. Flynn was a political opponent of Roosevelt, and had strongly criticised him for both his domestic and foreign policies. In 1944, a congressional investigation conducted by both major political parties provided little by way of vindication for his assertions, despite Flynn being chief investigator.
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[T]he actual 'Z' flag which had been displayed from Admiral Togo's flagship before the battle of Tsushima in 1905 was hoisted to the masthead...
