[samtheman]

Sadly, he was the best hope for negotiating a peace rather than dragging out the war for a few more years. He had warned in advance that if a deal wasn’t struck within six months after Pearl Harbor, Japan would lose the war. He knew our industrial might would grind them down, and Japan had no chance of winning a war outright.

---

You are right that his thinking was along those lines but I think it was highly unlikely he would have been able to prevail and actually engineer a peace. The vast majority of the top brass wanted to fight to the death.

[Enchante]

Yamamoto had absolutely no independent stamding or authority to pursue an early peace. Tojo and the army were totally in charge. Even in the summer of 1945, when the war effort was so obviously hopeless for Japan, the army was ready to assassinate any leader pushing for peace. It took the atomic bombs plus the Emperor.

[kearnyirish2]

He didn’t intend to negotiate anything (wasn’t his place/role); he was just stating the obvious.