This Open Access book describes the history of the relationship between the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), the heir to the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), and the United States Navy (US Navy), with a focus on the individuals who helped build it. Former enemies who fought fiercely on the seas and in the air during the Pacific War, the two navies came to respect each other in action. Soon after the war, when the Cold War turned hot, they began to work together as allies, driven by their respective national interests. With the generous assistance of the US Navy, the...