Yamamoto Fifty-Six can be said to be the soul of the Japanese Combined Fleet and even Japan during World War II, and his core theory made Japan sneak attack pearl harbor in the United States in the early stage of the Pacific Theater, severely damaging the American Pacific Fleet in one fell swoop, and giving Japan an incomparably huge advantage in the early stage of the war. In a sense, he was a good gambler, but his own life was not right, resulting in his own death at the hands of the American army. So what was the life of such a creative gambler-type general?
Yamamoto Wasoroku, whose original name was Takano Isoroku, was born on April 4, 1884 in Nagaoka City. Yamamoto was his mother's family name, and he changed his mother's surname because his parents died in his twenties, and it happened that his mother's Yamamoto family had no descendants to inherit the family,and he was passed over to the Yamamoto family. When Yamamoto was a child, just in time for the late Meiji Restoration, Japan began to use the policy of ignorance to make the samurai class and people below fanatically believe in militarism and the so-called "Bushido", and Yamamoto Fifty-six was no exception.
Yamamoto was asked to go to a military academy when he was a child, and in order to urge him to try to get into the military academy, his father even scratched him with a knife, and under pressure Yamamoto was admitted to the Edajima Naval Academy in 1901. Three years later, Yamamoto fifty-six graduated from the Edajima Naval Academy to catch up with the Russo-Japanese War, and Japan challenged Russia, the old European power, and although the war ended in Japan's victory, Yamamoto fifty-six was blown off two fingers on the ship during the naval battle. But because of this, he also became a hero in people's hearts, and with two fingers in exchange for the opportunity to further study, in 1914 he was promoted to the rank of captain, went to the Naval University to study naval knowledge in depth, and was promoted to junior in just one year.
In April 1919, Japan sent a group of outstanding officers to the United States to study advanced military theory, and Yamamoto Wasoroku was in this queue. After coming to the United States, he was stunned by the sight in front of him, he had never seen anything like an old hat, the advanced ideas and skyscrapers of the United States were impacting his ideas, and the industrialization of the United States and the large amount of energy resources made him realize how big the gap between the United States and Japan was. Two years later, after graduating from Harvard University, he returned to Japan as a teacher at Japan's Naval University, telling young soldiers about his observations in the United States, and in 1923 he went to Europe to investigate, and he was highly regarded by the Japanese military and received the rank of Daisa.
After studying in the United States, he clearly realized the importance of cooperation between the Navy and the Air Force, and even changed his original specialty to the study of aviation tactics. He was transferred to the Kasumigaura Air Force by the Japanese military, and as a deputy captain, he was not initially welcomed by the elite pilots of the following countries because of his ordinary appearance. But his indomitable character enabled him to improve his flying skills in a very short period of time, and his pilots slowly began to admire the forty-year-old instructor, and even when he went to the United States to serve as the military attaché of the ambassador to the United States, his soldiers flew to him.
After his return to Japan, he studied combat skills as a captain on several ships, and as a rear admiral, he already played a pivotal role in the Japanese Navy. At that time, the European and American powers saw the rise of Japan and tried to suppress the development of Japan's naval power, although Yamamoto strongly opposed it, but was forced by the strong pressure of the great powers, and Japan's maritime power was fiercely oppressed. Based on this situation, Yamamoto took out his theory of aviation power, and his theory was that the efficiency of direct naval combat was too low, and it was better to let the aircraft take off directly from the aircraft carrier and confront the enemy before they could react.
It was this theory that shaped the future of Pearl Harbor, but the aircraft required to complete such an airstrike were demanding. At that time, the relations between Germany and Japan were good, and Yamamoto personally negotiated with the high-level level of the German military industry in exchange for aircraft carrier technology in exchange for a new type of dive bomber and Germany's advanced aluminum alloy material technology. In the days that followed, he continued to develop the field of aviation, becoming Minister of Aviation in 1935. Although Yamamoto is fully developing the navy and air force, he is much stronger than those brainless right-wingers, and he still interjects relatively little in his main attack on military theory and military structure to Japan's war strategy.
By the beginning of World War II in 1939, Japan's navy and army were deeply divided, and the short-sighted army believed that it would ally with Germany and create an Axis group to invade the world. Yamamoto knew how powerful the United States was, and knew that if he allied with Germany, he would inevitably turn against the United States and even go to war, so he once opposed an alliance with Germany. The hot-blooded and brainless youth in Japan repeatedly thought that he was a traitor who wanted to assassinate him. Yamamoto's superiors, fearing for his safety, appointed him commander of the combined fleet's subordinate fleet, allowing him to "take refuge" at sea. This was also exactly what he wanted, and he was able to practice his theory wholeheartedly at sea.
After Germany and Italy became Axis powers, Yamamoto was promoted to admiral and appointed commander of the Combined Fleet. At that time, the world's navies were still dominated by battleships, but everything changed since the British fleet sneaked into the Italian navy with aircraft carrier-based aircraft in the Mediterranean. Yamamoto learned this line of thinking and formulated his plan, that is, although the national strength is inferior to the United States, it can use a big victory to force the United States to lose its combat effectiveness within a few years, and eventually compromise with Japan's energy problems, which is the cause of Pearl Harbor. Under his plan, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese successfully attacked Pearl Harbor, and a large number of American fleets were sunk by the Japanese army, and Japan made the us military's maritime strength plummet in a short period of time at a very small cost.
Subsequently, Yamamoto ordered a large-scale attack in the Pacific Ocean, eliminating the territory or colonial military forces of the Four Countries of the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Australia, and a large number of resources were obtained by Japan, and the Japanese top level simply loved Yamamoto fifty-six. Britain and the United States only wanted to fight back after being attacked, and instead of negotiating as Japan imagined, they were preparing to take revenge on Japan. Japan foolishly wants to simply cut off the connection between the United States and Australia, and Yamamoto is almost mad, isn't it to let the tiger return to the mountain? What he envisioned was to use his current advantages to fight with them to wipe out the sea power of the four countries on a large scale, and to think of something else after relieving his worries, but Japan was obviously overwhelmed by victory.
Since then, the battles of Japan and the United States have become more and more disadvantageous, and the United States has defeated the invincible Japanese combined fleet in Port Moresby, the Coral Sea, And Midway Island due to its advanced military intelligence system. At this time, although Japan failed several times but did not hurt its foundation, the subsequent Battle of Guadalcanal consumed a lot of Japan's national strength accumulated for many years. Japan had lost a large number of ships and experienced naval and air forces in the two major wars of Midway and Guadalcanal, and at this time Japan was completely at a disadvantage, the fleet aircraft could be rebuilt but experienced personnel could not be trained in a short time, and Yamamoto could no longer continue to command the war.
Yamamoto's career ended here, because on April 18, 1943, the U.S. military intercepted the information that he was about to take a plane to inspect the front line, and the U.S. army ordered an ambush of Yamamoto, and sure enough, Yamamoto's plane was eventually destroyed by the U.S. army, and the war criminal who planned many battles finally got his deserved end.