Word: isoroku
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Almost alone among the upper military echelon, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto counseled against being dragged further into war, especially against the U.S. In the first months of such a conflict, he said, "I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues, I have no expectation of success." But by September 1941 a decision had been made to prepare to fight America, and as commander of the Imperial Navy, Yamamoto dutifully drew up the plans. "I expect to die on the deck of my flagship," he said. "In those evil days you will see Tokyo burnt...
...hindsight of history, Pearl Harbor was a disaster for Japan's imperial ambitions. The attack was both the beginning of World War II in the Pacific and the beginning of its end. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander in chief of the combined Japanese fleet, who planned the Pearl Harbor operation, warned of that possibility as late as September 1941, when battle practice had already begun. "Japan cannot vanquish the United States," he told a gathering of old schoolmates. "Therefore we should not fight the United States." As Yamamoto saw it, there was only one slim chance for victory...