Hero Background
Isoroku Yamamoto was born in April 1884 in the city of Nagaoka under the name of Isoroku Takana, in the heart of a family of an old samurai lineage. His father, a converted samurai who was dedicated to teaching, used to tell him about battles from his samurai years, which may have contributed to Isoroku's decision to opt for a military career.
In 1906 his parents died and he was adopted by the Yamamoto family, from whom he adopted the surname by which he would be known until the day he died.
In 1900, at the age of 16, he joined the Imperial Navy and in 1904 he graduated from the Naval War College, graduating with the highest marks of his class.
In 1905 he took part in the Russo-Japanese war on board the "Nissin", in which he was seriously wounded by shrapnel, which blew a huge hole in his leg and severed two of his fingers when he was on lookout. Other consequences of these wounds were an infection in his left arm, due to a wooden splinter, which risked killing Isoroku if the arm was not amputated, but he refused, preferring to die of infection rather than be prevented from continuing his military career.
After recovering from his injuries over the years, he served on the cruisers Suma and Mishima, the battleship Kashima and the destroyer Kagerō, where he learned all about naval gunnery and torpedoes, and on the Niitaka he was promoted to lieutenant commander.
During the interwar period he was sent to the United States in 1919 where he studied and learned English until 1921, during which time he received the rank of commander. Upon his return to Japan he was put in command of the cruiser Kitakami, until he was appointed instructor at the naval school at the end of the year.
After a series of rapid and well-deserved promotions and positions on the general staff of the navy, instructor or naval attaché to the Japanese embassy in Washington, Yamamoto, with the rank of vice-admiral, returned to the general staff of the navy in 1934.
On Yamamoto's arrival in London, as a representative of the second Anglo-Japanese treaty, he was instructed to reject any agreement where there was no equalization between Japan, Britain and the United States, which was impossible despite Yamamoto's efforts due to the refusal of the latter two.
After these events, Yamamoto was invited by the Führer to hold a meeting in Berlin, but Yamamoto declined, although the tripartite treaty between Germany, Italy and Japan was subsequently signed, forming the Axis.
On 7 December at 07:48 am a surprise attack was made by 353 Japanese aircraft, including torpedo bombers, bombers and fighters from 6 aircraft carriers, which killed 2403 people, wounded 1178 and damaged a total of 6 battleships, sinking 2 cruisers, a training ship and three US destroyers.
The American intelligence service discovered how to encrypt the messages of the Japanese army, so it did not take long to find the location of the mastermind of the attack on pearl harbor, so Roosevelt himself gave the green light to neutralize Yamamoto, thus shortening the war.
Yamamoto died in the line of duty when he was about to visit the military base in the Solomon Islands. His plane was shot down by American P38 planes, on 18 April 1943, his plane crashed into the jungle and his body was found by a Japanese patrol. The corpse was sitting down, with a hole over his shoulder and another through his head from the jaw to the eye, in his hands he was holding his ceremonial Kai-gunto knife.
