Yamamoto: the man behind the Pearl Harbor Attack on December 7, 1941—A date of infamy

Seventy years ago today (Dec. 7), which as FDR said, has lived in infamy.  Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (山本 五十六) masterminded the sneaky Pearl Harbor attack.  Ironically if Yamamoto had his way, this wouldn’t have happened.  Not only was he against the Tripartite pack (Rome-Berlin-Tokyo), he was also opposed fighting with America.  Not that he was pro-America; he knew very well that Japan couldn’t win the war with America in the long run.  He said, “I shall run wild considerably for the first six months or a year but I have utterly no confidence for the second and third year.”  He was prophetically correct as the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) proved the turning point of the war in favor of America.

I always wonder what would have happened to Yamamoto on the post-war war criminal trial had he survived the war.  His aeroplane was shot down over Solomon Islands on April 18, 1943 after a Japanese message was decrypted by the American Pacific Fleet’s Radio Unit.  America couldn’t rejoice and celebrate in public, lest Japan would suspect their secret code was broken.  This is the ultimate revenge for the Pearl Harbor attack.

Yamamoto spent two years studying at Harvard (1919-1921), exactly the same time when Lin Yutang (林語堂) was at Harvard (Lin entered Harvard in 1919 and left for France then University of Leipzig in Germany in 1921, where he obtained his Ph.D.) I wonder whether Yamamoto and Lin met during their stay at Harvard.  It was said that Yamamoto read all books about modern naval warfare in Harvard libraries.  Lin Yutang also said it was at Harvard Widener Library where he “first found himself and first came alive.”  I visited Widener many times, but never had time to stay long enough to experience exhilarating feeling as Lin did.