The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy

Here, for the first time, Yamamoto emerges as the complex, sympathetic, and in many ways contradictory character that he was. A realist who foresaw the future importance of the airplane for the navy long before his contemporaries and who believed that Japan would inevitably be defeated in any war with America and Britain, he was also an inveterate gambler with an odd streak of superstition. A tough leader, he had at the same time a vein of sentimentality that would allow him to burst into tears at the funeral of a young subordinate. In public the very epitome of the dignified national hero, in private he often showed a schoolboyish playfulness that was sometimes endearing and occasionally embarrassing. He was always ready to express his views with a frankness uncommon in his day, yet he revealed in the end the same readiness as most of his fellow countrymen to accept passively "the call of duty."

The author, refusing the temptation to indulge in speculation or "reconstruction," has gone straight to the original sources--accounts written by those who worked with Yamamoto; scores of interviews with men and women who knew him personally; above all, letters written by Yamamoto himself. The latter range from his more circumspect, semi-official communications to intimate letters addressed to his mistress or long-standing friends of both sexes, in which he bares his private doubts and pessimism. It is these personal documents and reminiscences that make the character so human and, ultimately, give such a moving quality to the account of his dramatic wartime death in the South Pacific.

An intimate portrait of the man who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor and died a dramatic death in the South Pacific.

Samurai! The biography of Saburo Sakai is also recommended although the ibook edition has an opinioned, and inaccurate forward by the new editor not Martin Caidin.


Yamamoto, the Admiral, the womanizer.   July 31, 2001
 18 out of 21 found this review helpful

Admiral Yamamoto did not want to go to war with the United States; a naval war he felt could be sustained for at most 18 months. But go to war he did and it cost him his life. This is an easy to read history of Yamamoto's life, rich in personal details. He turns out to have been an avid womanizer, with one and perhaps two mistresses throughout most of his career. A man who lost interest in his marriage fairly early and was merely a financial contributor for most of his married life. Most of the personal correspondence quoted and many of his poems were written to his number one mistress, with nothing of substance regarding his wife and children.

Yamamoto seems to have come up with the strategy for the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the detailed tactical planning was the work of his staff. Somehow the debacle of Midway, which occurred under his command and which was planned by his staff, did not result in his immediate replacement. This apparently was due to the Imperial Japanese Forces being in full denial mode and not wanting to high light the disaster by removing the hero of Pearl Harbor.

Yamamoto seems to have been something of a figurehead for most of his career after Pearl harbor and until his death. This could be misleading since the author focuses so much of his attention on Yamamoto's personal life and not so much on his naval leadership.

It is particularly interesting to learn that with the many signs pointing to the fact that the Japanese codes had been broken, they denied this possibility and continued to send the "coded" messages which resulted in Yamamoto's plane being shot down by United States P-38s. There is an excellent book on that subject, "Get Yamamoto" but it seems to be out of print ...


Subarashii   June 12, 2001
 17 out of 18 found this review helpful

This was a wonderful book which went into alot of detail about the life of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He was a much more complex person than most people think. He was no ranting imperialistic flunky. In fact, he held most of those types in contempt. So much so, that he had to maintain constant vigilance because of death threats. However, he did his duty, as he was ordered to do, even though he knew the futility of it. He was also totally against the building of the Yamato and Musashi battleships. Utter "folly" he called them and a waste of time and money. He truly believed that the future of war would be aviation. He was proved right. Its really too bad that he was killed, he would have been of great benefit to the restructuring of the new Japanese government. Anyone interested in a more "personal" look of one of the greatest Admirals in the world, will love this book, like I did.