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Isoroku Yamamoto 1884-1943
Isoroku
Yamamoto's Name
Isoroku Yamamoto was born Isoroku Takano. He changed his
surname when the Yamamoto family offered to adopt him in 1916. The Yamamotos were in need of a son and heir. Isoroku was the youngest
Takano son and was honored to take on the famous Yamamoto name.
Isoroku means five, ten, six in
Japanese. That's because his dad was fifty-six years old when he was
born. Isoroku was born on April 4, 1884, in Nagaoka, Japan.
Isoroku
Yamamoto's Career
Isoroku Yamamoto lived
59 years and was an admiral in the Japanese navy. He also worked as
naval attaché at the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., and
held several other jobs for the Japanese government.
Isoroku
Yamamoto's Pastime
Isoroku's hobbies were kendo, reading the Bible (although he was not
a Christian), and gambling.
He was very fond of his sports coach, Haneda.
Isoroku
Yamamoto's Family
Isoroku's father was the former samurai Sadayoshi Takano.
His mother was Mineko.
His sister was Kazuko, his
brother was Kihachi.
Isoroku
Yamamoto's Strengths
Military strategy was his forte. Yamamoto was also very attentive to
details and nothing came between himself and his duty.
Isoroku Yamamoto
and World War II
Yamamoto was against getting
into the
Second
World War and the war with the United States because he
thought the US was too powerful. But it was not for him to decide.
So, once Japan made the decision, he knew that his country's only
chance for victory lay in a surprise attack that would cripple the
American naval forces in the Pacific. He therefore conceived the
plan to attack
Pearl Harbor.
Isoroku
Yamamoto's Weaknesses
Isoroku underestimated submarine warfare on commercial targets.
Another big mistake was that he didn't act decisively when he was
told that the Americans had deciphered Japan's codes.
More on Isoroku
Yamamoto
I
recommend the book Yamamoto
- the man who planned Pearl Harbor by
Edwin Palmer Hoyt
(1990).
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