Ahead, waiting at the dock to greet Admiral Leahy was Vice Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai, newly appointed Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet. The crew of the United States lined the rails and saluted as they passed the proud warship and made way to their own mooring. The flagship of Admiral Heihachirō Togo during his shattering victory over the Russians at Tsushima was a national treasure to the Japanese people. Like Leahy's Oregon, the battleship Mikasa was preserved as a symbol of a nation's coming of age.

With forty years of naval service, Leahy was the most senior Admiral in the US Navy and a confidant of FDR as well. Leahy had graduated from Annapolis in 1897 and as a midshipman had served aboard the battleship Oregon during her epic dash around the horn and the subsequent Battle of Santiago. It was a crisp day with only light clouds over Yokosuka as the huge American flagship USS United States sailed into the harbor flying the pennant of Admiral William Leahy Commander in Chief Battle Force, USN.

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