Yamamoto's Influence On Japanese

As the senior seagoing admiral in the Japanese fleet, Yamamoto prepared for war against the United States. Contrary to popular belief, Yamamoto argued for a war with the United States once Japan made the fateful decision to invade the rich lands of Southeast Asia; others in the naval ministry hoped to avoid war with America even while making war with Dutch and British possessions in Asia. When the Japanese emperor Hirohito adopted Yamamoto’s view, the admiral focused his energy on the coming fight with the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Well aware of the immense industrial capacity of the United States, but misunderstanding the potential resolve of the American public, Yamamoto asserted Japan’s only chance for victory lay in a surprise attack that would cripple the American naval forces in the Pacific and force the United States into a negotiated peace, thereby allowing Japan a free reign in greater East Asia. Any long war with the United States, Yamamoto believed, would spell disaster for Japan. Although he was not the author of the detailed plan to attack Pearl Harbor, he certainly championed it within government circles. On Dec. 7, 1941, his
commanders in the Pacific undertook to ambush and shoot down his plane. On April 18, 1943, during an inspection tour of Japanese bases in the South Pacific, Yamamoto’s plane was shot down near Bougainville Island, and the admiral perished.

Yamamoto was Japan’s most prominent naval officer during World War II. Despite his relative inexperience at sea in the years before Pearl Harbor, his contribution to naval strategy lies in his early recognition of the effectiveness of carrier-based aircraft in long-range naval attacks. Although he was a better tactician than strategist, he was an unusually gifted and able officer as well as a complex man of sometimes contradictory