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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: JFC on December 05, 2008, 07:56:33 PM
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Newly discovered writings confirm WWII admiral's opposition to Pearl Harbor attack (http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2008/12/05/20081205p2a00m0na004000c.html)
(Mainichi Japan) December 5, 2008
The words of former Imperial Japanese Navy Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943), chief of the Combined Fleet, written on Dec. 8, 1941, have been found, revealing the admiral's true feelings about the beginning of the war with the United States.
The two original writings had been kept by Vice Admiral Teikichi Hori (1883-1959), a good friend of Yamamoto's and native of Oita Prefecture, at the Tokyo home of Hori's grandchild. The writings will be on display from Saturday to Dec. 14 at the Oita Prefecture Ancient Sages Historical Archives in Oita.
The two texts, titled "Jutsushi," are dated May 31, 1938, and Dec. 8, 1941.
In the first piece, Yamamoto -- writing as Deputy Naval Minister before the signing of the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Germany and Italy -- said, "I reject this most common of ideas, and have come to know the great difficulty in doing so," expressing the trouble of opposing the "common idea" (the alliance with Germany and Italy).
In the later piece, concerning Yamamoto's reluctant participation in the attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, he wrote, "If I gave reign to my true feelings (about the attack on the U.S.), I would not be able to carry out this great duty which has been assigned to me."
Yamamoto was opposed to both the Tripartite Pact and the opening of the war with the United States, and researchers at the Historical Archives view these writings as his last will and testament.
The existence and content of both documents were known through the records of the late Vice Admiral Hori. Akiko Yasuda, head researcher for the Historical Archives and discoverer of the original texts, said, "There was some doubt that the words in the Hori records were truly the words of Yamamoto. However, this discovery (of the originals) proves their veracity."
(http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5854/20081205p2a00m0na003000aa3.jpg)
Article - http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2008/12/05/20081205p2a00m0na004000c.html