Essay --

Pearl Harbor was one of the most motivational events in American history. From the very beginning Japan and America had their own social views and stereotypes about each other that a feud was bound to occur. On December 7, 1941 the nation of Japan sent out a fleet of their Imperial navy to attack the American held base on the island of Oahu. Leading this attack was Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto who was a militarily strategic genius.† Yamamoto was planning on sinking the entire American Pacific fleet so the U.S navy could be put out of the war for the time being and the Japanese navy could continue their expansion in the Southwest Pacific.†(book)(Gordon Prange 136-138) â€Å"Isoroku Sadayoshi later known as Yamamoto was born in Nagaoka Japan August 4th, 1884. He was was the son of an impoverished school teacher, Takano Teikichi, and his second wife Mineko. Isoroku belonged to the Echigo clan, a clan of warriors who had resisted unification of Japan during the reign of the Meiji emperor. He was given the name â€Å"Isoroku† which meant 56 by his father who was that age when Isoroku was born in the small village of â€Å"Kishigun Sonshomura† which was an island that produced mostly sailors which would be an influence in Isoroku’s love of the sea and navy. At age 16, after taking competitive examinations, He enrolled in the Naval Academy at Etajima, off the shore of Hiroshima where he overtook rigorous physical and mental training.Graduating in 1904 as seventh in his class, he fought against Russia's Baltic Fleet at Tsushima, a strait between Japan and Korea, in an engagement recognized by historians as a major decisive battle. As an ensign on the cruiser Nisshin,part of the protective screen for Admiral Togo Heihachiro's flagship Mikasa,Isorok... ...Pacific. In particular, he wanted to thank troops recovering from their ordeal on Guadalcanal. At age 59, he was tired, weary of war, and of life itself: "I have killed quite a few of the enemy, and many of my own men have been killed. So I believe the time has come for me to die too." During the Guadalcanal conflict, his hair had turned snowy-white. In April 1943, U.S. intelligence detected advance reports of general Yamamoto's fleet, Eighteen American Lightning planes were waiting for the first attempt in history to ambush an enemy commander-in-chief in the air. On the 18th, his aircraft, under the escort of nine zeroes, was shot down by a P-38 near Kahili in southern Bougainville. On June 5, the admiral's ashes were honored in Tokyo at the nation wide ceremony, this was the largest tribute in Japan since Admiral Togo and both were in 1934.(Gordon Prange) (343-356)