Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Yamamoto (?? ??? Yamamoto Isoroku, April 4, 1884 – April 18, 1943) was the commander of the Japanese Navy for the first four years of World War II. He is generally regarded to be Japan's greatest naval strategist of the war, and among the greatest naval strategists in history.

Family background

Yamamoto was born Isoroku Takano (?? ??? Takano Isoroku) in Nagaoka in Niigata. His father was Takano Sadayoshi (?? ?? Takano Sadayoshi), a low class samurai of Nagaoka-han. "Isoroku" is an old Japanese term meaning "56"; the name referred to his father's age at Isoroku's birth.

Related Topics:
Nagaoka - Niigata - Samurai - Han

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His name itself is intriguing given his father's family name. For example, if a Japanese has the unfortunate occurrence of producing only daughters, they will insist that one of their daughters husbands changes his last name to keep their daughter's last name alive. It was, also, not unusual for people to change their last names.

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In 1916, Isoroku changed his last name to Yamamoto, because the name Yamamoto was an honorable and ancient one in the history of Japan. One such figure was Tatekawa Yamamoto, who fought against the Emperor, and his forces at the Battle of Watkamatsu, during the Bosshin War. Since he was one of the leaders of the rebellion, when he was captured, he was beheaded at Watkamatsu. Since Tatekawa had no sons, Isoroku was also the future of the Yamamoto clan.

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Not uncommon in Japan was the fact that men got married for the purpose of producing sons to keep the family name alive. This is exactly what Isoroku did. In 1918, he got married to Reiko, who, ironically, was from Watkamatsu. They had four children together, two sons, and two daughters.

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