What does an ultimate gambler look like? Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy, probably had the most say. God of War? gambler? What's the solution? Opportunism? Sensei Yamamoto has been bouncing back and forth between the above comments. He was a calm commander and an extreme gambler. He was famous for gambling and died in a foreign country because of gambling. In the gambling world, he is destined to be a controversial macho.
Is6 Yamamoto
【1. Yamamoto Rises】
Originally known as Takano Isoroku, yamamoto was born into a family of broken men in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, to a father named Takano Sadayoshi. When Takano Fifty-Six later inherited the Yamamoto-dai-dai-sword family business in Nagaoka City, he also inherited his surname and changed his name to Yamamoto Fifty-Six. The Takano family has always lived a relatively punk life, and for generations was a Confucian official of the Japanese Echigo Nagaoka Domain, who was not only proficient in Confucian classics, but also proficient in gun skills. What is the name of wen and martial arts, this is (tactical backing).
Yamamoto was born in 1884 as the sixth son of Takano Sadayoshi. Ordinary people are born with extraordinary performance, and Yamamoto is no exception. It is said that when Yamamoto was born, he did not cry, but with a look of thinking, and his family praised that Yamamoto would become a great instrument in the future. East Asians speak similarly auspicious words.
Takano Sadayoshi was very happy to hear the praise for his son. He himself was fifty-six years old at the time, so he named his son Fifty-Six. This method of naming is really a bit psychedelic. Originally, the Takano family in Nagaoka Domain was considered a family with a good family, but the demise of the shogunate changed everything about the Takano family. A grain of sand of the times, falling on the head of a family is a mountain [tongue-in-cheek].
Nagaoka Domain was closely related to the shogunate, and almost all samurai took part in the war against the Meiji government. The Takano family was no exception, and eventually Takano's parents were killed in the war, and the Takano family's property was wiped out in the war. The rolling tide of history not only did not give the Takano family face, but on the contrary, it also hit the Takano family in the face.
Yamamoto did not have a good family from childhood, but he developed his distinct personality traits: tenacious and tenacious but taciturn. Yamamoto grew up at a time when Japan's mouth was at its most exuberant in modern times, and it was good to see everywhere, and he wanted to invade the outside world. In 1894, after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War and the victory of Japan over China, militarist ideas became increasingly rampant in the social trend.
Japan's expansion
Yamamoto Isoroku himself grew up in a family that believed in Bushido, and militarism was inextricably linked to Bushido, and under the influence of the social trend of thought at that time, the seeds of militarism in Yamamoto's heart took root day by day. He was later admitted to the Japanese Naval School on Edajima.
When asked why he wanted to become a soldier, Yamamoto replied very dryly, "If the children of the samurai family don't become samurai, what else are you going to let him do?" "Dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, and this sentence is the same in Japan." Yamamoto's tenacious and resolute character traits were vividly expressed in the military academy, and he received many praises from his classmates at the time, and was called "Tenacious Fifty-Six" and "the model of Nagaoka Samurai".
His three years in the ivory tower of the Navy saw the East Asian world change. The contradictions between Japan and Russia intensified, and a large-scale fight broke out, and the Russo-Japanese War broke out. After graduating, Yamamoto participated in the Russo-Japanese War as a second lieutenant cadet, fighting under the famous general Heihachiro Togo. Togo Heihachiro is an iconic figure in the modern Japanese Navy. He organized the Battle of the Sea of Japan in the Tsushima Strait and won the First Battle, laying the foundation for Japan's final victory in the Russo-Japanese War, which made Yamamoto greatly respect Togo Heihachiro throughout his life.
Yamamoto showed his macho traits during the war. Before going to the battlefield, he sent a photo to his parents, and wrote two sentences afterwards: "Life and death are not enough, only bow to repay the supreme." However, the macho man also had regrets in the war, and he became a disabled person, because the index and middle fingers of his left hand were blown away.
Later, Yamamoto earned the nickname "Eight Cents". The nickname comes from his story of the Wind Moon. Yamamoto often patronized geisha, when geisha trimmed nails according to the finger charge, ordinary people need one yuan, but Yamamoto only needs eight cents, so yamamoto is called "eight cents". Yamamoto's bravery also brought him the honor he wanted. In 1906, the Emperor of Japan awarded him the Rising Sun Medal of merit, 6th Class, and awarded him a prize of 350 yen. This was seen by him as the glory of a lifetime, and it was also an important ascending capital for him.
Not only did Yamamoto work hard himself, but he also had thighs to hold. Naval tycoon Kantaro Suzuki greatly appreciated Yamamoto and often recommended Yamamoto to some of the upper echelons. This has led to a rise in Yamamoto's official position, and the surrounding evaluations are also quite high. A brilliant star will rise.
【2. Aviation First】
The reason why Yamamoto became the leader of the Japanese naval community is that he had to mention his early experience of studying in the United States. In 1919, just nine months after Yamamoto and his wife were married, he had to embark on a journey to study in the United States and go to Harvard University as a diplomat. The United States was the most developed capitalist country at that time, and Yamamoto had long wanted to come to the United States to experience it.
In the United States, Yamamoto uses every opportunity to reach out to people from all walks of life in the United States and to gain as comprehensive a understanding of the United States as possible. The more he learned about the United States, the more Yamamoto developed a fear of the United States. This is the poor man's admiration for the local tycoon, because this local tycoon really has a mine in his family, and his wealth is invisible.
Compared with Japan's scarce strategic resources, the United States has abundant strategic resources, especially oil, which makes the United States have a very terrible potential for war. Yamamoto not only made field trips to the U.S. oil industry, but also to the oil situation in Mexico, and then submitted a large number of opinion reports.
The investigation of oil deeply influenced Yamamoto's operational thinking, and he has since pondered how Japan could use other resources in the absence of oil to replace oil. The United States is now mulling negotiations with Japan to adjust its East Asian sphere of influence. As a result, in Japan at that time, a possible future war between Japan and the United States was very popular.
Japan published a special punk pamphlet called "If Japan Goes to War with the United States," which spared no effort to promote the confrontation between Japan and the United States. However, Yamamoto was not impressed with this punk rhetoric. Thanks to his in-depth study and investigation in the United States, he knew that Japan's overall economic and military strength was too far from that of the United States. If a war breaks out, it will be difficult for Japan to compete with the United States.
After careful analysis, Yamamoto decided to bet on "aviation wins". The plane had just appeared at that time, and many people did not pay enough attention to it, but Yamamoto keenly recognized the advantages of the aircraft in long-range strikes and attached great importance to the role of the aircraft. He believes that future maritime operations will mainly rely on aircraft. Yamamoto shifted his focus from the sea to the sky and proposed to vigorously develop the navy's aviation armament.
However, as the saying goes, if the step is too big, it is easy to pull the egg, and Yamamoto's thought was too advanced and was not widely recognized in the military circles at that time. However, Yamamoto was not discouraged, he was convinced that his perception was right. He focused his eyes on the development of American aviation, and the idea that aviation power would dominate in naval warfare became clearer and clearer in his mind.
He also believed that the Japanese Navy should adhere to the operational ideology of "aviation first" and that Japan, as a resource-scarce country, should develop aircraft so that it can ensure that it can fight an offensive war if necessary. Aircraft will become the main weapon of naval warfare, and the maritime mobile force composed of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft will be the backbone of the victory or defeat of the sea. He was always ready to put his ideas into practice.
In 1928, when the opportunity came, he became captain of the cruiser Isuzu and captain of the aircraft carrier Akagi. At this time, Yamamoto, who had been working on land for a long time, finally transferred his place of work to the sea, and he was ready to use his skills to transform the Japanese naval power. Akagi, completed in 1927, was the world's second largest aircraft carrier at the time, second only to the U.S. aircraft carrier Lexington, with a standard displacement of 29,500 tons and a speed of 31.7 knots.
In 1930, Yamamoto became head of the Technical Department of the Naval Aviation Headquarters. Taking advantage of his position, he actively improved the Japanese Navy's torpedo attack aircraft and long-range bombers, and also put the production of fast fighters on the agenda. These became a powerful weapon for Japan in the Pacific Naval War.
Yamamoto also recognized the importance of the localization of the military industry at the time, and he proposed to use domestic components to build high-performance aircraft. In 1933, he was appointed commander of the First Air Force for his ability and achievements.
【3. Qingyun Straight Up】
In 1934, Isoroku Yamamoto was once again given the opportunity to show his abilities. He was appointed Chief Naval Representative of the Japanese Side of the Preparatory Meeting for the Naval Disarmament Conference in London and was instructed to attend the Preparatory Meeting for the International Naval Disarmament Conference. At this meeting, the Japanese Cabinet wants to further clear the way for future foreign aggression.
At that time, the Japanese Navy was subject to the proportional limits of the warships of various countries under the Washington Treaty, and could not arbitrarily develop naval tonnage. The Japanese cabinet had decided to abrogate the Washington Treaty itself, but was unwilling to take responsibility for undermining it, so it needed to make a model to the outside world, so it gave Yamamoto four negotiating demands, instructing him to achieve as much as possible:
1. Oppose the current method of proportionalization of warships of various countries. 2. Advocate equality in the total tonnage of warships. 3. Stipulate the standard of "no threat, no aggression". 4. Withdrawal from existing treaties.
When Yamamoto arrived in Britain, he said categorically to the reporters he met: "Japan can no longer succumb to the constraints of naval proportions." On this point, my Government has no chance of compromise. At the meeting, Yamamoto proposed to revise the ratio of the capital ship Japan to Britain and the United States 3:5:5, advocating that the total tonnage of warships be equal, but Britain and the United States did not agree. Eventually, the Japanese government ordered Yamamoto to withdraw from the London Formal Conference on Disarmament.
The world's naval powers began to enter a period of unrestricted shipbuilding competition. To put it simply, this is the era of fighting for the bottom of the family. Yamamoto was revered after his return to Japan, and in the context of the madness of the time, the Japanese nation did not feel that it would go to the abyss of war, but instead believed that Yamamoto had won them diplomatic success. Nationalism kills people. In the face of the people's fanatical pursuit, Yamamoto's heart showed amazing calmness. He believes that Japan's strength at this time is not enough to compete with Britain and the United States, so it should recuperate its strength and cultivate obscurity, accelerate the development of maritime aviation strength, and wait for the opportunity.
However, Yamamoto's ideas ran counter to the mainstream thinking of the Japanese military at that time. Admiral Ryozo Nakamura, head of the Ship Administration Headquarters, strongly criticized Yamamoto's ideas, arguing that aircraft carriers and aircraft could only conduct reconnaissance of enemy situations and auxiliary attacks, and that it was still the huge battleships that really determined the supremacy of the sea. Yamamoto's vision later became a reality, and the Japanese giant battleships Yamato and Musashi were sunk by American aircraft shortly after entering the battle. This fully demonstrated the short-sightedness of the mainstream of the Japanese military circles at that time.
In 1939, Yamamoto reached the pinnacle of power and was appointed commander of the Combined Fleet Command of the Imperial Japanese Navy. This year, he was 56 years old. Yamamoto told reporters who interviewed him: "I feel really afraid to be so heavy on this occasion, and I am willing to do my best to serve the country." The appointment of Commander of the Combined Fleet is the highest honor for a soldier. I have made up my mind to do my duty to the death. ”
At that time, the media industry was completely crazy, and Yamamoto instantly became the brightest boy in the Japanese military. At this time, the great ship of World War II had begun, and the Pacific War was getting closer and closer. Yamamoto originally did not agree to Japan's alliance with Germany and Italy, and he considered it unwise to be an enemy of Britain and the United States based on Japan's practical interests. However, the Japanese Army did not back down, and the young elements among them openly accused Yamamoto of opposing the Triple Alliance as harming Japan's fundamental interests, and even issued assassination threats. Fate eventually pushed Yamamoto to a bigger stage and never returned.
【4. Win or lose big gamble】
Yamamoto is a well-known gambler with high gambling skills, he is good at gambling, but he never cares about winning or losing. He has many punk experiences. He once killed a lot at the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco, becoming the second guest in the casino's history to be banned from entering. He also boasted that if he traveled all over Europe, he could gamble to earn a warship for Japan.
He has played countless tables in his life, and the attack on Pearl Harbor is undoubtedly the number one bet, betting on the fate of the Japanese Navy and the fate of Japan. He is definitely the most gambling in the army, the most capable of fighting at the table. His name should be changed to: Yamamoto Monte Carlo Terminator Japanese Battleship Earner, Crossover Gambler Fifty-Six.
In 1940, Yamamoto was promoted to admiral. In the same year, Hideki Tojo was in charge of the cabinet. Yamamoto was originally at odds with Hideki Tojo, but due to Yamamoto's great prestige in the navy and good relations with the imperial family, Tojo did not dare to easily replace him from the position of the combined fleet of the navy. This year, the United States announced the "Embargo On Japan Act", which severely restricted the export of steel and oil to Japan, and the desire for military resources forced Japanese dogs to jump the wall.
As I said before, Yamamoto has avoided going to war with the United States because he knows a lot about America's war potential. He once complained that he suspected that politicians who wanted war were not prepared for the costs and sacrifices that would be made. However, the Japanese government was controlled by Hideki Tojo, and Yamamoto was unable to compete with the Japanese government at that time, and as a soldier, all he could do was obey the government's decision and accept the fact that Japan was going to go to war with the United States. Yamamoto was both a perennial opponent of war with the United States and the first to provoke a naval war in the Pacific with the United States, and his actions seem contradictory, but in fact they are justified.
In order to be able to defeat the U.S. Pacific Fleet in World War I, he submitted an "Opinion on War Readiness" and formulated the famous plan to attack Pearl Harbor. In his opinion, he said: "Very few people can now discern the development trend of international relations. In the foolish view of the combined fleet of the navy, a war with Britain and the United States was inevitable. Therefore, we should prepare for war, training and battle planning as soon as possible, and hope that we will not miss a good opportunity. ”
Pearl Harbor is located on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands in the north-central Pacific Ocean, about 3,800 kilometers east of the west coast of the United States, about 6,000 kilometers from Japan, and about 7,000 kilometers from the Philippines. In order to gather accurate intelligence, Yamamoto asked for spies with professional naval training in Hawaii. Soon after, the famous spy Yoshikawa was sent to Hawaii. Yoshikawa was a very good spy who brought very accurate intelligence to the Japanese Navy. The story about him is long and deserves to be elaborated on separately.
In short, the Japanese got the important information they wanted: details of the battleships moored in Pearl Harbor and the time the warships were in port. Although there were many voices in the Japanese Navy at that time that opposed Yamamoto's desperate attack on Pearl Harbor, believing that it was a joke on the national fortunes, Yamamoto thought it was worth fighting once, knowing that Japan could not defeat the United States, it could only adopt sneak attack tactics, forcing the US Navy not to enter the western Pacific for half a year.
He ordered Major General Takijiro Onishi to draw up a plan for a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. The order of attack targets is: enemy aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, with a focus on aircraft carriers. After finalizing the plan for the attack, Yamamoto named it "Project Z," a memorial to the "Z" flag raised by Heihachiro Togo during the Battle of Tsushima. Yamamoto has maintained respect for Togo throughout his life, and at the moment when the Great War is approaching, he may also hope to continue Togo's good fortune in the Russo-Japanese War.
At that time, there were three main routes from mainland Japan to Pearl Harbor: the northern route passed through the Aleutian Islands, which had a harsh climate but was easy to conceal; the middle route passed through Midway and the southern route passed through the Marshall Islands, with a suitable climate but easy to be discovered by the US military. In the end, Yamamoto finalized the northern route, and the attack time was: December 8, 1941, the nineteenth day of the lunar calendar, the second quarter of the month, Sunday, 8 o'clock in the morning.
The final result is known to everyone, the macho Yamamoto won the gamble, causing a major blow to the US Pacific Fleet, but also aroused the anger of the Americans. In order to retaliate against the Japanese, the Americans carried out "Doolittle air strikes", which greatly shocked the Japanese government. The Japanese government then urged the Japanese Navy to further destroy the U.S. Pacific Naval Fleet.
Nimitz and Yamamoto Fifty-Six
Yamamoto had to prepare for the Battle of Midway, but the preparation process was not sufficient. Despite this, Yamamoto believed that the odds were not small, because after estimating the military strength of both sides, he felt that the strength of the American army was inferior to that of the Japanese army. A gambler, when he is careful, even if the stakes are large, he will not necessarily lose, but when he begins to be blindly confident, he will be unlucky.
What Yamamoto did not expect was that the Japanese code was deciphered by the Us army, which knew their actions very well, placed the American troops in the right position and hit the Japanese Navy. The Japanese Navy suffered heavy losses, and all four aircraft carriers of the First Assault Squadron were sunk by the Americans. The macho Yamamoto lost half of his chips in this battle, the golden body of the god of war was broken, and the middle road collapsed. At this time, it was only half a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto had predicted that Japan would lose its strategic initiative six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the development was as he expected. As Tang Bohu, played by Stephen Chow, said: The ups and downs of life are too exciting.
【5. Buried in a foreign country】
After the Battle of Midway, Yamamoto had to face two realities, one happy and one worried. The good news is that he still has a certain amount of chips in his hands, and if he plays brilliantly, he does not rule out the opportunity to take the initiative against the wind. Worriedly, due to the defeat at the Battle of Midway, the Japanese Naval Staff Headquarters no longer accepted his gambling style of play, and he had to carry out a defensive plan. But the defense plan did not stop the American army from advancing step by step, and soon after the Japanese lost another battle at Guadalcanal, completely losing the military strength to continue to expand in the Pacific.
Faced with the decline of the Japanese army, Yamamoto urgently needed to stabilize the military with a victory, so he planned to launch a large-scale counterattack in the South Pacific, named "I" operation. As the operation was about to end, he wanted to visit solomon's base on the front line in order to give the soldiers on the front line a shot of chicken blood.
This has to be said to be an act of great death. Even more foolishly, the Japanese sent Yamamoto's travel schedule by telegram to the front-line troops. Officers on the Japanese front were shocked by Yamamoto's hormonal decision, and they objected because the front was too close to American territory to ensure safety. But Yamamoto has always been a very paranoid person, stubborn, and the gambler spirit has occupied the high ground at this time.
Naturally, the U.S. military intercepted the telegram and deciphered it. The top brass of the US military was overjoyed and decided to kill Yamamoto and send the macho man on the road. On the morning of April 18, Yamamoto set off for the front line. At 9:30 a.m., over Bougainville Island, 12 U.S. Lightning fighters sniped at Yamamoto, and the 8 Zeros protecting Yamamoto's planes were caught off guard and fought with U.S. aircraft.
After one group of U.S. planes diverted the Japanese plane escorting it, the other team fired a strafing shot at the Yamamoto plane, which crashed into the jungle. The Japanese search and rescue team found Yamamoto's landline in the jungle the next day. Yamamoto's body was in a clearing not far away, wearing white gloves, holding a knife, and had a notebook in his jacket pocket with the cover sign "Yamamoto Fifty-Six."
Yamamoto's death was not announced until May 21, when yamamoto was posthumously awarded the title of Marshal and allowed to be buried according to the national burial specifications. Yamamoto's state funeral was scheduled for June 5, which is also the funeral anniversary of Heihachiro Togo. A generation of macho Yamamoto Monte Carlo Terminator, Japanese battleship earner, crossover gambler Fifty-six, won the last glory of his life.
Winning is also a big gamble, and losing is also a big gamble. The gambler died on the gambling table, which is also a good death. After his death, the Japanese Navy gradually fell to its demise. In a way, it was his death that sounded the death knell for the Japanese Navy.
Tomb of Yamamoto 56