feet above the waves to escape detection,
they arrived over Bougainville precisely two
hours later, just as the punctual admiral’s
plane was approaching. Several bursts of gun-
fire sent it careening into the jungles below,
killing him. Yamamoto’s death constitutes the
only instance in World War II where a high-
ranking enemy official was deliberately
marked for assassination. His demise was a
severe blow to national morale and left a vac-
uum in Japanese strategic thinking that re-
mained unfilled.
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Admiral Nimitz Foundation, 1988.YAMASHITA, TOMOYUKI
Yamashita, Tomoyuki
(November 8, 1885–January 23, 1946)
Japanese General
A
brilliant strategist, Yamashita inflicted
one of Great Britain’s most serious de-
feats at Singapore in 1942. Two years
later he capably directed a last-ditch defense
of the Philippines before being executed as a
war criminal. The circumstances surrounding
his death, however, have never been legally
resolved and remain controversial.
Tomoyuki Yamashita was born in Kochi
Prefecture, Shikoku Island, on November 8,
1885, the son of a village doctor. Intent upon a
military career, he trained at the Hiroshima
Military Preparedness School before graduat-
ing from the Imperial Military Academy in
- Yamashita then fulfilled routine assign-
ments until being appointed to the staff of the
Infantry School in 1908. Good conduct landed
him at the Army Staff College in Tokyo, where
he graduated at the top of his class in 1915.
Yamashita subsequently served as a military
attaché to Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland
for several years. In this last assignment, he
entered an uneasy relationship with another
rising officer, Hideki Tojo. Yamashita re-
turned home in 1925, where he advanced to
the rank of lieutenant colonel. However, that
same year he supported plans for a partial re-
duction of the military, thereby gaining the en-
mity of ultranationalists headed by the ambi-
tious Tojo.
The onset of the Great Depression in 1929,
and the economic dislocation that ensued,
generated extreme nationalism and mili-
tarism within the Japanese army. Yamashita
had since became associated with the so-
called Imperial Way faction, which called for