Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Yamamoto Senior Third Rank
Admiral Yamamoto, c. 1940
Native name	山本 五十六
Born	(1884-04-04)April 4, 1884 Nagaoka, Niigata, Empire of Japan
Died	April 18, 1943(1943-04-18) (aged 59) near Panguna, Bougainville, Territory of New Guinea
Buried	Tama Cemetery, Tokyo[1]
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Service / branch	Japanese Navy
Years of service	1904–1943
Rank	Marshal Admiral (posthumous)
Commands	Isuzu, Akagi, 1st Carrier Division, Naval Aviation Bureau, 1st Fleet, Combined Fleet, 1st Battleship Division[2]
Battles / wars	Russo-Japanese War Battle of Tsushima (WIA) World War II Pacific War Attack on Pearl Harbor Operation MI New Guinea campaign Operation I-Go Solomon Islands campaign Guadalcanal campaign Operation Ke Operation I-Go Operation Vengeance †
Awards	Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum (posthumous) Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords[3]
Alma mater	Imperial Japanese Naval Academy Harvard University
Spouse(s)	Reiko Mihashi ​ (m. 1918)​
Other work	Vice-Minister of the Navy

Isoroku Yamamoto (山本 五十六, Yamamoto Isoroku, April 4, 1884 – April 18, 1943) was a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II. He commanded the fleet from 1939 until his death in 1943, overseeing the start of the Pacific War in 1941 and Japan's initial successes and defeats before his plane was shot down by U.S. fighter aircraft over New Guinea.

Yamamoto graduated from the Imperial Naval Academy in 1904 and served in the Russo-Japanese War, where he lost two fingers at the Battle of Tsushima. He later studied at Harvard University in the United States and was appointed naval attaché to the Japanese embassy in Washington. His experiences convinced him that naval power depended on access to oil and industrial capacity, and that Japan thus had little hope to defeat the U.S. in a war. He was one of the first naval leaders to conclude that naval aviation and aircraft carriers would play a decisive role in any future conflict. In 1936, Yamamoto was appointed navy vice minister, and opposed Japan's alliance with Germany in the Tripartite Pact of 1940. In 1939, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, and was tasked with creating a strategy for war with the U.S.; Yamamoto favored a surprise attack, which he carried out at the start of the war with an attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

In the early months of the war, the Japanese fleet scored a series of decisive naval victories. These gains were halted at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, in which four Japanese carriers were sunk. Yamamoto committed to the defense of the Solomon Islands in the Guadalcanal campaign, but was unable to prevent their capture. In April 1943, Yamamoto was killed after American code breakers intercepted his flight plans, enabling the United States Army Air Forces to shoot down his aircraft.