Yamamoto Isoroku
(1884–1943), Japan's foremost World War II naval officer. Born in Niigata Prefecture, Yamamoto Isoruku graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy in time to see service in the Russo-Japanese War and was severely wounded at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. In 1919 Yamamoto was sent to the United States for graduate study, which was followed by a year of service at the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C. He returned to the United States in 1926 for a two-year tour of duty as naval attaché in Washington.
As international tensions mounted in the 1930s, Yamamoto criticized Japan's alliance with Nazi Germany, fearing that it would lead to hostilities with the United States. Nevertheless, he was appointed commander in chief of the Combined Fleet in 1939, and in that capacity he oversaw preparations for war. With a keen appreciation of American industrial might, Yamamoto proposed launching a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor in an effort to avoid a protracted war. Although the attack in December of 1941 was successful, Yamamoto's hope for a quick peace settlement was in vain, and his bid for a decisive victory at Midway failed disastrously in June 1942. Yamamoto was killed in the Solomon Islands on 18 April 1943 when American fighter pilots shot down his plane.
Further Reading
Agawa, Hiroyuki. (1979) The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy. Tokyo: Kodansha.
Hoyt, Edwin P. (1990) Yamamoto: The Man Who Planned Pearl Harbor. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Potter, John Deane. (1965) Admiral of the Pacific: The Life of Yamamoto. London: Heineman.
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