Yamamoto, Isoroku

Yamamoto, Isoroku (1884–1943) Japan's greatest naval strategist in World War II, and the naval officer who conceived of the surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in 1941. He graduated from the naval academy in 1904, fought in the Russo-Japanese War, and served as naval attaché in the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C. (1926–1927). In little more than ten years he rose quickly through the ranks, becoming vice minister of the Japanese navy in 1936, commander of Japan's First Fleet in 1938, and commander in chief of Japan's Combined Fleet in August 1941. Yamamoto opposed war with the United States, but, once the decision had been made, he argued that the only way to win such a war was a surprise attack that would completely disable the U.S. naval forces in the Pacific. (He also predicted that, should the war with the United States last longer than a year, Japan would lose.) After the successful attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto wanted a decisive battle with the remainder of the U.S.'s Pacific forces (its aircraft carriers), but Japan lost that battle, at Midway in June 1942. His next campaign, in the Solomon Islands, was also unsuccessful, and he died when the U.S. forces shot down his plane over Bougainville Island in the Solomons.