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.

Preparing for war, 1920s and 1930s

From 1926 to 1928, he was naval attache to the Japanese embassy in Washington, and travelled widely in the United States, which gave him considerable insight into his future opponent. He was then appointed to the Naval Affairs bureau and made Rear Admiral. He attended the London Naval Conference in 1930. Back in Japan, he joined the Naval Aviation Bureau and from 1933 headed the bureau and directed the entire navy air program.

Related Topics:
1926 - 1928 - Washington - United States - London Naval Conference - 1930 - 1933 - Navy air

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In December of 1936, Yamamoto was made vice minister of the Japanese navy, from which position he argued passionately for more naval air power and opposed the construction of new battleships. He also opposed the invasion of Manchuria and the army hopes for an alliance with Germany. When Japanese planes attacked the US gunboat Panay on the Yangtze River in December 1937, he apologized personally to the American ambassador. He became the target for fascist assassination attempts; the entire Naval ministry had to be placed under constant guard. However, on August 30, 1939, Yamamoto was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Combined Fleet and then promoted to full Admiral on November 15, 1940.

Related Topics:
1936 - Naval air - Battleship - Manchuria - Germany - Attacked the US gunboat Panay - Yangtze River - 1937 - August 30 - 1939 - Commander-in-Chief - Combined Fleet - Admiral - November 15 - 1940

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Admiral Yamamoto did not soften his logical anti-conflict stance when Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in September 1940. Yamamoto warned Premier Konoe Fumimaro not to consider war with the United States: "If I am told to fight... I shall run wild for the first six months... but I have utterly no confidence for the second or third year." He was proven uncannily correct as the Battle of Midway (generally considered the turning point in the Pacific conflict) occurred six months (almost to the day) after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. His foresight also led him to believe that a pre-emptive strike against US naval forces would be vital if war did occur.

Related Topics:
Tripartite Pact - Italy - September - 1940 - Konoe Fumimaro

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He also accurately envisaged the "island-hopping" and air dominance tactics such a war would feature, although his vision failed him when it came to battleships, which he (as most officers in the American navy, it must be conceded) still believed to be the key component of naval forces.

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The Attack on Pearl Harbor, 1941

Following the invasion of Indochina and the freezing of Japanese assets by the US in July 1941, Yamamoto won the argument over tactics and First Air Fleet under Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo was directed against the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, attacking on December 7. With around 350 planes launched from six aircraft carriers, eighteen American warships were sunk or disabled. Nagumo's failure to order a second search-and-strike against the American carriers or a third attack wave to destroy the base's critical oil storage facilities which could have crippled the US Pacific fleet's operation capacity by itself and Yamamoto's disinclination to press him turned a tactical victory into a strategic defeat.

Related Topics:
Indochina - July - 1941 - Chuichi Nagumo - Pacific Fleet - Pearl Harbor - December 7 - Aircraft carrier

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In the movies Tora! Tora! Tora! and Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto's character says, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Considerable doubt exists, though, whether he actually ever said (or wrote) anything like that; it was probably invented for the movies, although it may well have encapsulated some of his real feelings about it.

Related Topics:
Tora! Tora! Tora! - Pearl Harbor - Invented for the movies,

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