Yamamoto, Isoroku (Isoroku Takano) (1884–
1943) Japanese admiral
The son of a schoolmaster, Isoroku Yamamoto was born
Isoroku Takano in the city of Nagaoka, Niigata prefec-
ture, Japan on 4 April 1884. Perhaps because his father
was of the samurai class, Yamamoto took up a military
career. In 1901, he entered the Naval Academy at Eta-
jima, Hiroshima, and graduated three years later. He saw
action and was wounded during the Russo-Japanese War
(1904–05), when he served on the Japanese cruiser Nis-
shin at the battle of Tsushima (27 May 1905), the over-
whelming Japanese naval victory against the Russians.
Following the war, Yamamoto continued in the
navy and was sent to the Naval Staff College at Tsukiji in
- In 1914, he was formally adopted by the wealthy
Yamamoto family and took their name as his own. He
graduated from the Naval Staff College three years later
and was appointed to the general staff of the Second
Battle Squadron. At this time, Japan enjoyed good rela-
tions with the United States, and Yamamoto attended
Harvard University. In 1921, he returned to Japan,
where he was promoted to the rank of commander and
given a teaching position at the Naval Staff College for
three years. In 1924, he was assigned to the air training
center at Kasumigaura as its executive officer. Two years
later, he was posted back to the United States to serve
as the naval attaché to the Japanese Embassy in Wash-
ington, D.C. During his two-year tenure, he traveled
across the country and studied American ways and cus-
toms. Appointed to the Naval Affairs Bureau in Tokyo,
he returned to Japan and was promoted to rear admiral.
In the next decade, he was involved in the buildup of
the Japanese navy and the construction of many of the
aircraft carriers Japan would use in the Second World
War. In 1935, he was named as head of the Naval Avia-
tion Bureau.
During this time, Japan saw the rise of militarism
among politicians who realized how important military
strength was to Japanese political influence. Yamamoto,
named in December 1936 as vice minister of the Japa-
nese navy, opposed these ideas but did call for the in-
crease of aircraft in the navy. He opposed the Japanese
invasion of Manchuria in China in 1937, and when the
Japanese attacked the USS Panay, an American gunboat,
in China in December 1937, Yamamoto personally
apologized to the United States for the incident. Be-
cause of this, he was the object of promilitarist hatred,
and to avoid assassination he was guarded constantly.
Nonetheless, he encouraged the building of the aircraft
carriers Shokuku and Zuikaku. On 30 August 1939, he
was promoted to admiral and given the command of the
Japanese fleet.
When the Second World War started in Europe,
Japanese leaders realized that the United States, sooner