Portal:World War II/Selected biography/7
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese: 山本五十六 Yamamoto Isoroku?) (4 April 1884 – 18 April 1943) was a Fleet Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II, graduate of Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and alumnus of U.S. Naval War College and Harvard University (1919 - 1921).
Yamamoto is considered to be one of Imperial Japanese Navy's most talented and most influential naval strategists and tacticians and is highly respected in Japan. In the United States he is widely regarded as a clever, intelligent and dangerous opponent who resisted going to war, but once the decision was made did his utmost for his country. However, some American survivors of the war maintain their condemnation of him for the surprise character of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He died during an inspection tour of forward positions in the Solomon Islands when his transport aircraft was ambushed by American P-38 Lightning fighter planes. He held several important posts in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and undertook many of its changes and reorganizations. His death was a major blow to Japanese military morale during World War II.
