山本 五十六

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Yamamato was born in Japan on April 4th, 1884. He attended the Japanese Naval Academy, graduated high in his class, and subsequently joined the Japanese navy and took part in the Russo-Japanese War. He was assigned to the Imperial Navy headquarters in Tokyo in 1914 and served there until 1916, when he began studying economics at Harvard University in the United States. He commanded an air training base in Japan upon his return to that country, and was eventually appointed as a naval attache in Washington. He served in that capacity from 1925 to 1927.

Yamamoto was promoted to rear admiral in charge of technical service in 1931. He believed (quite rightly) that future wars would be decided by air power, and in accordance with this belief ordered the construction of hundreds of small aircraft, primarily fighters and torpedo- or dive-bombers. In 1938, he was promoted to full admiral and commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

Yamamoto opposed the signing of the Tripartiate Pact with Nazi Germany, as he feared it would lead to a war Japan could not win. A relatively famous (but possibly apocryphal) quote describing his position: "In the first six to twelve months... I would win victory after victory. But then, if the war continues, I would have no expectation of success."

In an attempt to intimidate the United States or deal a crippling blow to U.S. naval power (accounts differ), Yamamoto planned the attack on the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor. The attack itself succeeded, but the primary targets of the raid, the aircraft carriers Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga, were at sea at the time. As a direct result, of course, the United States entered World War II.

In the months that followed, Yamamoto organized the Japanese invasions of the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, as well as numerous smaller locations, establishing Japanese control over most of the western Pacific Ocean.

In the summer of 1942, Yamamoto organized the attempt to capture the United States military base at Midway; however, the United States had broken most of the high-level Japanese codes at the time, and was able to correctly determine the target of the attack despite Yamamoto's feints towards the Aleutian Islands. Yamamoto's force was defeated, and four Japanese aircraft carriers, out of the six that Yamamoto's navy posessed at the time, were sunk. After the Battle of Midway, Yamamoto fought a rearguard action, but was unable to prevent the loss of several Japanese bases, including the base at Guadalcanal.

In an attempt to bolster flagging Japanese morale, Yamamoto made plans to visit the base at Bougainville on April 18th, 1943. His itinerary, however, was intercepted and decoded, and a flight of American P-38 Thunderbolts, codenamed "Operation Vengeance," shot down and destroyed Yamamoto and his fighter escort as they approached Kahili Field on Bougainville.

The Japanese Navy did not formally announce Yamamoto's death until more than a month later, on May 24 of the same year. He was replaced as commander in chief of the Combined Fleet by Mineichi Koga.

See also: World War II, Pearl Harbor, Battle of Midway.