Crews of Japanese warships operating from Malta in World War I fell victim to two shameful waves of racism.

In the Mediterranean, maritime warfare was not going at all well for the Allies, with German and Austrian U-boats inflicting unsustainable losses to Allied mercantile convoys and their armed escorts.

A Japanese warship in Grand Harbour

The Japanese warship Kaede in Grand Harbour in 1918

Some suggested Japan should be invited to send flotillas of anti-submarine destroyers to Malta to boost the depleted Allied forces.

Demeaning and racist dismissals from the highest London political and military circles met these proposals. What? Warships manned by Japanese crews? Wouldn’t that be useless, ha, ha?

The Cousis cigarette company, owned by Joseph Howard, Malta’s consul for Japan, issued special cigarettes for Japanese crews in Malta.

Eventually, on April 13, 1917, the first contingent of seven destroyers and one cruiser steamed into Grand Harbour, over time reaching a maximum complement of 17 vessels, under Rear-Admiral Kozo Sato.

Rear-Admiral Kozo Sato with the higher Japanese naval ranks in Malta

The Japanese flotillas immediately gained the reputation of being the most committed, disciplined, daring, tenacious and technically excellent among all the other Allied fleets plying the Mediterranean. 

British Vice-Admiral George Alexander Ballard personally distributed medals and decorations awarded by George V to distinguished Japanese officers.

A picket-boat of the Japanese warship Asigari in Grand Harbour

The Malta-based Japanese flotillas suffered one major calamity, the torpedoing of the destroyer Sakai on June 11, 1917, with the loss of her captain and around 70 crew, buried with military honours in the Kalkara naval cemetery.

Sadly, shore leave of the Japanese crews turned into ugly xenophobia. Wherever the officers and men went, swarms of local children pulling their eyes, pestered them, mocking their oriental facial features. 

The Japanese naval contingent at the Victory parade on March 31, 1919

Japanese naval officers and men marching in front of the Palace, in Valletta.

This bigoted ridicule became so widespread and unbearable that the Governor, Lord Methuen, in April 1918 felt the duty to issue a formal public apology to the Japanese officers and men for the reprehensible behaviour of the hare-brained native racists.

In the interwar years, warships of the Imperial Japanese navy, like the Yakimo, visited Malta.

All images from the author’s collections.

The grand victory celebrations at the end of World War I in which the Japanese crews participated.