IJN at Jutland. Impact on future Anglo-Japan relations?

[Admiral Beez]

Following the Nov 1914 defeat of Germany in the Pacific; in August 1915, the battlecruisers Kongō Haruna, Kirishima and Hiei, along with all three turbine-powered Chikuma-class protected cruisers, and six Kaba-class destroyers arrive at Scapa Flow. Their mission is to joint the British Grand Fleet and to learn its ways. Over the next six months the Japanese train like mad, adopting Royal Navy doctrine and training, gaining the admiration of both Jellicoe and Beatty. May 1916, the IJN force of thirteen warships joins the British Battle Cruiser Fleet, consisting of six battle cruisers and four QE-class battleships, under the command of Admiral Beatty. At the battle, the additional four battlecruisers from Japan give Beatty an advantage, and several German warships are sunk. Beatty remarks on the tenacity of the IJN cruisers and destroyers in their torpedo attacks. At the end of the battle, the Japanese admiral is invited to meet with George V, who offers his hearty congratulations and shares his memory of meeting Admiral Tōgō at his coronation in 1911. Tokyo announces that its fleet will remain on station at Scapa Flow into 1918. In Dec 1917, the USN's Battleship Division Nine, commanded by Admiral Hugh Rodman, with USS New York Wyoming, Florida, and Delaware arrives at Scapa Flow. The combined RN, IJN and USN fleet awaits for the Germans to venture out, in vain.

Can the British, Americans and Japanese get along during this time together? Would the USN have even sent a fleet to Scapa if the IJN was there? And would Japan keep a fleet at Scapa for two years after Jutland? How is it maintained and financed? How are interwar relations impacted?

 

[SaparotRob]

Gonna' need more coal.

 

[Shortround6]

Navy Squadron in the Mediterranean (Japan) | International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1)

Responding to the British request for further support to the Allied war efforts, the Imperial Japanese Navy dispatched a squadron to the Mediterranean Sea. From April 1917, a Japanese flotilla was based at Malta, playing an important part in anti-submarine convoy escort duty along the...

encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net

This may have some bearing on your thinking.

 

[nuuumannn]

While not specifically to do with the Grand Fleet, the IJN provided warships to escort the ANZAC convoy of troop transports that sailed from New Zealand and Australia in late 1914 for Egypt. In September 1914 the IJN armoured cruiser Ibuki sailed into New Zealand waters to escort the convoy to Australia and beyond, and when word got to the convoy that the German light cruiser Emden was near the Cocos Islands, Ibuki's commanding officer was keen to hunt the cruiser down, but HMAS Sydney was sent after the Emden instead, which apparently irked the Japanese commander.

 

[nuuumannn]

Further to the discussion point, the future relations being affected by Jutland and subsequent proximity of the IJN would probably have little bearing on the course of history as it happened once Japan heads down the route of diplomacy that it did to create the rift that happened in real life. Bear in mind that before and after the war, Britain and Japan had close relations, the IJN approaching the British about aircraft purchases, and subsequently the British Naval Mission of 1921, which was something of a diplomatic coup because of the supply of what was at the time modern naval aircraft, including aircraft carrier based fighters and torpedo droppers.

An IJN Sopwith Cuckoo, supplied with the British naval mission, which was based at Kasumigaura and which, piloted by IJN airmen carried out torpedo drops over Tokyo Bay under the instruction of British torpedo instructors from Scotland that accompanied the mission. These guys had been training naval personnel in torpedo dropping off the coast of Scotland in Sopwith Cuckoos in preparation for an attack against the High Seas Fleet at anchor in Wilhelmshafen at the time of the Armistice in November 1918.

Japanese Cuckoo 1921

A considerable amount of technology exchange and expertise went to Japan at this time, and separately, Herbert Smith, former draughtsman at Sopwith's went to Japan to work for Mitsubishi to design naval aircraft for the IJN. In the mid 1920s, several aviation firms were openly working with Japanese manufacturers in the transfer of know-how and technology, including Blackburn and Rolls-Royce. When relations between the two nations soured, several high profile individuals involved in the naval mission to Japan were accused of espionage, along with the Blackburn company for supplying trade secrets to the Japanese.

It is hard to believe that things would have been any different that what actually happened, given the two countries had a good working relationship before the Great War and the rapidity that things went sour when they did. Bear in mind, the Mikasa and the other battleships in Togo's fleet at Tsushima were built in Britain. During the battle, a Royal Navy observer, Capt Packenham watched the battle unfold from a deck chair aboard the battleship Asahi. After the battle, Adm. Togo was summoned to face the Mikado, and he took Packenham with him as a mark of respect for the British sailor.