Background
Yamamoto Isoroku was born on 4 April 1884 into the Takano family, samurai of the former domain of Nagaoka in present-day Niigata Prefecture, but was later adopted as heir to the Yamamoto family.
山本五十六
Yamamoto Isoroku was born on 4 April 1884 into the Takano family, samurai of the former domain of Nagaoka in present-day Niigata Prefecture, but was later adopted as heir to the Yamamoto family.
He graduated from Nagaoka Middle School, the Naval Academy, and the Naval Staff College.
During the years from 1919 to 1921 he was stationed in the United States and studied at Harvard.
He saw action in the Russo- Japanese War and in 1905 was wounded in the battle of the Japan Sea. The same year he was commissioned as an ensign.
After his return to Japan, he became an instructor in the Naval Staff College. In 1924 he was made executive officer of the Kasumigaura Naval Air Squadron. He went once more to America, spending the years 1925-28 as naval attaché to the Japanese Embassy.
In 1929 he went to England as a member of the Japanese delegation to the London Disarmament Conference and advanced to the rank of rear admiral.
In 1931 he became commander of the air squadron and in 1934 went to England as Japan’s representative to negotiate preparations for an arms reduction agreement. He advanced to the rank of vice-admiral and in 1935 became commander of the air force headquarters. In 1936 he became vice-minister of the navy and the following year joined with Navy Minister Yonai Mitsumasa in attempting to block the conclusion of a military pact between Japan and Germany.
In 1939 he was shifted to the post of commander of the Combined Fleet. Though personally opposed to the idea of war with Britain and the United States, he was obliged to lay plans for such a war. Emphasizing the prime importance of air power, he drew up the strategies for the Pearl Harbor and Midway attacks and directed their execution, but, while on an inspection tour of the front line bases in 1943, he was killed in an enemy air attack. He was given a state funeral.