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Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
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"In
the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great
Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the
war continues after that, I have no expectation of success."
Admiral Yamamoto, 1940 |
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| Having lived
and studied previously in the United States, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of
the Imperial Japanese Navy was not eager to enter into war with that
county. Ordered into combat by his country, Yamamoto was the most
reluctant of warriors who seemed to know that it was his destiny to
fight and die for his Emperor in a lost cause.
One of the great advantages that the United States enjoyed in its war with Japan was the cracking of the Japanese code. This gave the U.S. advanced warning of impending Japanese operations. One such operation was a visit by Admiral Yamamoto to the Japanese base on Bougainville. Allied intelligence intercepted and decoded a message describing the visit, and the 13th Air Force decided to welcome him. Even the highest ranking American military commanders felt that to give a direct order to assassinate an enemy commander was above them, and the authorization for the mission eventually came all the way down from the office of the American President. On April 18, 1943, one year to the day after the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, 18 American P-38s from the 13th Air Force launched from Guadalcanal, flew to Bougainvillea, found the Admiral's flight, and shot down his plane killing him. |
