How the U.S. Assassinated the Japanese Admiral Who Planned Pearl Harbor

The National Interest ^ | 04/16/2017 | Michael Peck

[SpeedyInTexas]

Some sixty-eight years before U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden, America conducted an assassination of another kind.

This time, the target wasn’t a terrorist. It was the Japanese admiral who planned the Pearl Harbor operation. But the motive was the same: payback for a sneak attack on the United States.

[rdl6989]

Thanks, I never knew that part of the story.

[Shadow44]

And Rommel served the Nazis, still doesn’t mean people don’t respect his talent.

[Seruzawa]

Yamamoto would have not negotiated a surrender. One reason he was sent to sea was the fear that some junior Army officers would murder him for being perceived as not aggressive enough. That was a real fear that Japanese senior officers and politicians carried with them. Junior officers carried out many assassinations.

The Imperial Army just before Hiroshima was spoiling for a fight with the US Army. They had never really fought us. We fought Japanese naval ground forces mostly in the Pacific. The Army would have killed Yamamoto if he’d counselled surrender.

[Nifster]

Must not read much about WWII

It was not an assasination. We were at war He was a legit target as were any and all commanders

[DesertRhino]

Actually all your tough-guy talk aside he was quite friendly with the United States, and was in opposition to the war. His experience with us taught him that there was no way japan could win. He knew he would run wild in the Pacific for about a year. When he list the debate, he fought hard for his country. But he wasn’t someone who hated the United States. He was a good commander who needed to be killed and that’s it.

[OKSooner]

Yeah, they shot his butt down because they knew where he was going to be, then continued combat air patrols in the same spot so as not to betray the fact that our savants had long since busted their code.

Ironically, as most of us around here already know, Yamamoto could have been a pretty cool guy, excepting the fact that he was an enemy Admiral at war with us, getting his orders from evil insane warlords.

And he knew it at the time.

Put him next to Rommel or Stauffenberg, one would suppose, except they met their fate by different means.

[Mouton]

The movie Gallant Hours was on a few weeks ago. It stared Cagney as Halsey and followed an approximate two month time of his command which included the Yamamoto raid. From what I gather, it was a pretty accurate depiction. According to a part of the story line, Yamamoto decided to do a visit to the forward areas based on a visit Hallsey had made to our forward area which seemed to rally moral.

[Nifster]

Japan did not surrender after the first atom bomb. We had to drop a second before they became convinced. Thank God that happened. Trying to take the islands of Japan would have been awful

[carolinablonde]

I completely agree that he was a legitimate target. I don’t agree with your second sentence; I think he WAS friendlier to the US and would have sought peace with us before the other Japanese leaders would/did. Sadly, though he probably would have been ignored as they ignored his advice about a prolonged naval war with the US.

[kearnyirish2]

Very interesting; I didn’t know that.

[jmacusa]

All true and I might add in the middle of a war his country started.

[dfwgator]

They got Rommel, too. Although he didn’t die from his injuries (Hitler took care of that!)

[kearnyirish2]

It would have been costly to invade; by the end of the war they had almost no fighters left to shoot down our bombers and they still fought on. As I understand it, most Japanese had no idea that the damage from the first bomb (if they were aware of it at all) was caused by one bomb from one plane. Even if they had known, there was just something fanatical about their culture that would have prevented them from doing anything but what their government ordered.

[kearnyirish2]

I meant he himself wouldn’t send out peace feelers; he had no authority to do so, in a disciplined society where independent action was unthinkable.

[minnesota_bound]

#5 He was ‘re-positioned’ into the jungle. : )

[chaosagent]

#5 He was ‘re-positioned’ into the jungle. : )

Don’t you mean ‘re-accommodated’?

[Flag_This]

"The P38 didn’t have the range until Lindberg got his hands on it. Drop the RPM, increase the Boost and there were another 600+ miles in them."

And he proved his concept to disbelieving pilots by flying over 50 combat missions, participating in bombing and strafing attacks and shooting down at least one Japanese plane.

[BuffaloJack]

> That was back in the days when the United States actually won wars.

That was when we had a War Department not a Defense Department. We haven’t had an unconditional decisive since the change. We should change it back.

[Chode]

that word doesn't mean what they think it means...

[Enchante]

"the Emperor gets a lot of credit stateside for the surrender, but was in fact a big part of the problem all along"

There is no incompatibility between "the Emperor was a big part of the problem all along" and "the Emperor's intervention was crucial in bringing about the surrender of Japan."

Both statements can be true and are in fact true, from what I have read. In August 1945 it was a very very delicate thing to bring off Japan's surrender, and even after the 2nd atomic bombing their army's fanatics tried hard to block the movement toward surrender. It was only when the Emperor insisted and the recording of the Emperor's message was broadcast that the surrender finally came about.