Akiyama Saneyuki
was a Meiji-period career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He was famous as a planner of Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese general Akiyama Yoshifuru was his elder brother and the Japanese politician Hisako Ōishi was his granddaughter. Biography Early life and career Akiyama was born in Matsuyama Domain, Iyo Province, as a son of a poor samurai. As a youth, he studied literature, especially traditional waka poetry. The famous poet Masaoka Shiki was his friend from childhood. Later the two young men went to Tokyo to study literature and Akiyama began to prepare for entry into the Literature Department of Tokyo Imperial University. However, Akiyama was forced to abandon his study of letters as his elder brother Yoshifuru ordered him to go to Naval Academy in Tsukiji, Tokyo instead, largely due to the economically severe condition of the Akiyama family. While Akiyama was a student, the Naval Academy moved to Etajima, in Hiroshima prefecture, and was renamed the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. Akiyama was an outstanding student, graduating on 17 July 1890 as a midshipman at the top of the 17th class, out of 88 cadets. He graduated just weeks after the publication of the first and last chapters of Alfred Thayer Mahan's classic study, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783 in its Japanese translation in July 1890. Akiyama served his midshipman tour on the Hiei and cruiser . On commissioning as an ensign on 23 May 1892, he rose through the ranks in a variety of routine shipboard assignments and duties that included deployments throughout the Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and European waters. He was assigned to the Ryūjō. He subsequently served on the , , (during the Battle of Weihaiwei in the First Sino-Japanese War), and . Following the hostilities he served a tour at the Imperial Navy's Torpedo school and then was assigned to naval intelligence, where he spent several months posing as a laborer and conducting missions in Manchuria and Korea. Studies in the United States After his promotion to lieutenant on 24 October 1896, Akiyama was sent to the United States as a naval attaché from 26 June 1897 to 27 December 1899. It was a time of heightened tension between Japan and the United States, due to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii by American marines and settlers, which nearly led to a rupture of diplomatic relations. On Akiyama's arrival in New York, he attempted to contact Alfred Thayer Mahan for advice and recommendations on how to study at either the US Naval Academy or Naval War College. Mahan was unwilling to help, aside from giving Akiyama a list of books to read. Akiyama then contacted the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, but his pleas to be allowed to attend the Naval War College were refused. Akiyama’s tour of duty coincided with the start of the Spanish–American War, and he joined the American fleet as a foreign military observer. He was able to watch