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17382 - ADMIRAL ISOROKU YAMAMOTO
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| As commander-in-chief of the Combined
Fleet from 1939 to 1943, Isoroku Yamamoto presided over Japanese naval
strategy during the first half of World War II. History remembers
him as the architect of the stunning American defeat at Pearl Harbor
on December 7, 1941. The ironic thing is that Yamamoto opposed war
with the United States and Japan's partnership with Nazi Germany.
Yet once Tokyo decided on hostilities, a dutiful Yamamoto concocted
the brilliant plan of incapacitating the U.S. Pacific Fleet with a
massive carrier air strike. Instead of breaking America's will to
continue the struggle, however, Yamamoto's master stroke roused a
sleeping giant that would destroy him and devastate his country.
Yamamoto was born of samurai stock in 1884. He graduated from the Imperial Naval Academy at Etajima in 1904 and saw action in the Russo-Japanese War, losing two fingers from his left hand at the Battle of Tsushima. In the decades following World War I, Yamamoto emerged as one of the most far-sighted officers in the Imperial Navy. He studied English and petroleum issues at Harvard University from 1919 to 1921, returning to the United States a few years later as the naval attache at the Japanese embassy in Washington. At the same time, Yamamoto became a leading proponent of naval aviation. He pushed for the development of improved airplanes and challenged convention by asserting that aircraft carriers were of greater value to the Imperial Navy than battleships. After a stint as vice minister of the navy, Yamamoto took command of the Combined Fleet and prepared it for war. Despite Yamamoto's success in surprising the Americans at Pearl Harbor, the fact that the enemy had cracked Japan's naval codes soon placed him at a disadvantage. This ability to read Japanese plans enabled Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to thwart Yamamoto at Midway in June 1942. Shortly after Midway, the Americans seized the initiative by staging
an offensive in the Solomon Islands. To better coordinate Japanese
countermeasures, Yamamoto moved his headquarters from Truk to Rabaul
in April 1943. He then scheduled a tour of his forward bases, but
American radio intelligence intercepted his flight itinerary. On
April 18, sixteen P-38 Lightning fighters ambushed the bomber carrying
Yamamoto and shot it down, killing the U.S. Navy's most dangerous
adversary. |
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