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    Yamamoto Isoroku
    Yamamoto Isoroku
    Yamamoto Isoroku
    Ebook159 pages1 hour

    Yamamoto Isoroku

    By Mark Stille and Adam Hook

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    Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku was the defining Japanese naval commander of World War II. Yamamoto's career in the Imperial Japanese Navy started in the early years of the 20th century and he saw service in the Russo–Japanese War, being wounded in the battle of Tsushima in 1904. He went on to study at Harvard University and serve as a naval attaché in the inter-war years, an experience that was to give him a unique insight into the American psyche. Despite the success of his daring pre-emptive strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941, that damaged the US Pacific Fleet and ushered in the Pacific War, Yamamoto's subsequent handling of the Japanese combined fleet can be called into question. The final campaign commanded by Yamamoto was that around Guadalcanal, where Yamamoto's myth of excellence will be totally laid bare. Despite a considerable numerical advantage over the Americans, Yamamoto never brought this advantage to bear. The result was a devastating defeat for the Imperial Japanese Navy and, eventually, the death of Yamamoto himself.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJun 20, 2012
    ISBN9781780964461
    Yamamoto Isoroku
    Author

    Mark Stille

    Mark Stille is the author of numerous Osprey titles focusing on naval history in the Pacific. He recently concluded a nearly 40-year career in the intelligence community, including tours on the faculty of the Naval War College, on the Joint Staff and on US Navy ships. He received his BA in History from the University of Maryland and also holds an MA from the Naval War College.

    Read more from Mark Stille

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      Book preview

      Yamamoto Isoroku - Mark Stille

      INTRODUCTION

      Yamamoto Isoroku is the most well-known of Japan’s wartime military commanders and his name will be forever linked to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He personally advocated the attack and went to great extremes to execute it, in spite of almost universal opposition within the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). This, and a wartime interview in which he was taken by Americans as stating that he would dictate peace terms on the steps of the White House, made him the most recognized and hated of any Japanese commander.

      Official portrait of Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku as Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet. This view conveys some of his confidence and is in keeping with his status as one of Japan’s most exalted naval heroes. (Roger Pineau via Lansdale Research Associates)

      As with any famous military commander, there is always reality and myth. For Yamamoto, these stand in stark contrast. Yamamoto’s reputation is built on several major pillars. The most prevalent of these is his supposed opposition to war with the United States, which is based on his accurate predictions as to the outcome for Japan should that conflict ever occur. What he was opposed to was a drawn-out conflict with the United States. There is no record of Yamamoto being opposed to Japan going to war against Great Britain and the Netherlands in 1941. Yamamoto was not against going to war, but was opposed to starting a war that Japan could not win. To Yamamoto’s credit, he clearly saw what would happen if Japan actually went to war with the United States. Though this was not a penetrating insight given the disparity in the potential military power between the two nations, it was a view held by shockingly few of Japan’s senior leaders.

      However, Yamamoto’s admonitions about going to war with the United States stand in stark contrast to his actions in 1941 as Japan was formulating plans for war against the Western powers. It was at this time that, ignoring his own advice, he conceived and forcefully advocated a daring plan to attack the United States directly. This plan became the attack on Pearl Harbor which changed the course of World War II. Pearl Harbor also all but ensured Japan’s defeat as the attack filled the Americans with a thirst for revenge and an unwillingness to negotiate anything short of total victory, thus removing any hope of a peace favorable to Japan. Yamamoto’s actions are all the more remarkable since he spent much time in the United States before the war and had been assumed to possess great insight into the American psyche.

      Another pillar buttressing Yamamoto’s reputation was that he was an innovative air power advocate. This was built on the limited time he spent in aviation billets – of Yamamoto’s 35-year career, before taking command of the Combined Fleet in 1939, only six-and-a-half years were spent in aviation or aviation-related billets – and the fact that the IJN created its powerful carrier force while Yamamoto was in command of the Combined Fleet. In reality, his tours of duty in aviation billets were either very short, or limited to staff level positions. With the possible exceptions of his campaigning for the construction of long-range naval aircraft in the 1930s and approving the formation of the First Air Fleet in April 1941, Yamamoto was responsible for no aviation innovations. In fact, his planning for both Pearl Harbor and the battle of Midway indicated that he still did not understand the nature of the instrument he had created in April 1941. It was not until after the Japanese defeat at Midway in June 1942 that Yamamoto oversaw a reorganization of the Combined Fleet which put the carrier as the centerpiece. This was a move that the US Navy had made months earlier.

      The easiest Yamamoto myth to debunk is his reputation as a brilliant and invincible admiral. Any brilliant insights he exhibited were not translated into success on the battlefield. His signal victory at Pearl Harbor has since been recognized as an act of great strategic folly. It was also a hollow victory in a more strictly military sense since it contributed nothing to Japan’s conquest of Southeast Asia. The initial flush of Japanese victories during the first months of the Pacific War had little to do with Yamamoto and everything to do with ineffective and limited Allied resistance by forces not prepared for war, combined with the tactical excellence of the Japanese forces executing the operations.

      An examination of Yamamoto’s planning of, and conduct during, the battle of Midway should provide any evidence necessary to prove his shortcomings as a war leader. Midway was Yamamoto’s battle from its inception and planning through to its execution and conclusion. Superior American intelligence and the ineffectiveness of the on-scene Japanese commander have provided Yamamoto cover from the disaster, but the Japanese defeat is directly attributable to the compromises made by Yamamoto before the battle. These compromises led to the defeat at Coral Sea which in turn jeopardized the Midway operation. Also, the incredible lack of professionalism throughout the planning process set up the Combined Fleet for a resounding defeat. The battle of Midway was the only occasion that Yamamoto took a fleet to sea under his direct command. His faulty planning and poor execution resulted in a seminal defeat which stopped Japanese expansion in the Pacific.

      Despite this, Yamamoto’s reputation has remained high, especially within the IJN. When the Americans launched their first counterattack of the war in August 1942 at the little-known island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons, Yamamoto seemed unable to grasp that it was another opportunity to fight the decisive battle he so earnestly sought. Despite several notable Japanese victories during the campaign, the Japanese never were able to focus their still superior forces to achieve final victory. Yamamoto was killed in action shortly after the end of the Guadalcanal campaign. As a battlefield commander he was responsible for the deeply flawed victory at Pearl Harbor followed by a string of defeats at Coral Sea, Midway and the Solomons; yet, still, his reputation as a great admiral persists.

      THE EARLY YEARS

      Yamamoto was born in the town of Nagaoka in Niigata Prefecture which is located on the northern part of the island of Honshu. Before his birth, Yamamoto’s clan was on the losing side of the Satsuma Rebellion which ended in 1877. This placed Yamamoto’s samurai father, Takano Sadayoshi, in an unenviable position. The victorious Imperial government quickly moved to destroy the samurai system and, as a member of the clan which had opposed the government, it was hard for Takano to find work. As a school teacher, he was forced to drift around northern Honshu to find employment. Eventually, Takano returned to Nagaoka. Shortly thereafter, his wife died. He then married his wife’s younger sister and had three children with her. The youngest, a son, was born in 1884. He was named Isoroku meaning 56, his father’s age when Yamamoto was born.

      Takano Isoroku’s early life was marked by poverty and uncertainty. However, he was blessed with a decent education which, at some point, involved Christian missionaries. By Japanese standards, his education was modern since it emphasized science and technology and, in addition to traditional Japanese values, it stressed individual responsibility. This resonated with Yamamoto for the rest of his life. He proved to be a good and serious student, and hoped to use education to escape the poverty of Nagaoka. He found this escape in the spring of 1901 when he

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