The director of Tora! Tora! Tora!, Richard Fleischer, stated that while Yamamoto may never have said those words, the film’s producer, Elmo Williams, had found the line written in Yamamoto’s diary. Williams, in turn, has stated that Larry Forrester, the screenwriter, found a 1943 letter from Yamamoto to the Admiralty in Tokyo containing the quotation. However, Forrester cannot produce the letter, nor can anyone else, American or Japanese, recall it or find it. Randall Wallace, the screenwriter of the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, readily admitted that he copied the line from Tora! Tora! Tora! - wiki
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The line was never said by the real guy, but written by a screen writer.
The line was never said by the real guy, but written by a screen writer.
Right. Why would he say that about his own plan? The original plan was to invade the Philippines and ambush the US fleet when it sailed to the rescue. Yamamoto changed all that. The sneak attacks were all Yamamotos idea.