Yamamoto survives World War 2
- Thread starter Tetsu
- Start date
Unfortunately probably true. As the architect (even if somewhat unwillingly) of the dastardly sneaky Pearl Harbor attack, you know Halsey, Nimitz and that crowd would want him strung up - and I believe "planning and waging offensive war" or something like that was among the "crimes" the Japanese had to answer for. The only thing which might save him is the fact that the IJN was less likely to be in the position of taking thousands of POWs and brutalizing them so he would possibly less demonized. He might also get a good lawyer assigned to him or be able (as an English-speaker) to give a good enough account of himself to escape the noose.
At the end of the war? Assuming there's an Allied victory, he probably gets a prison term, somewhere around ten or fifteen years, and when he gets out, he writes a book and maybe gets his image redeemed. Perhaps he might even get pardoned?
Or...if he was in Japan during the collapse of Imperial Japan, perhaps he could have staged a coup against the faction insisting on a suicidal last stand and engineered a surrender or something along those lines?
Romulus Augustulus said:
I think that heard a quote from Yamamoto after being congratulated for Pearl Harbor saying that a really clever thing would have been to avoid war.
Is there any chance of his working for an earlier attempt to end the war?
(I may be wrong about this I do remember this from somewhere, and I may be wrong in attibuting it to Yamamoto.
The point should be made that, as the architect of the strike on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto avoided the cardinal sin and capital crime of making Douglas MacArthur look bad, so he might have survived.
Something to Consider...
Wendell- Hell No!! There is no way that any American naval leader will let Isoroku Yamamoto serve in the politics of Japan. He could certainly write a book similar to Shintaro Ishihara's Japan Must Say No!! , but any active political life is to be thoroughly discouraged.
Cockroach- More likely, after an exhaustion of legal appeals, Isoroku Yamamoto would be charged with "war crimes against the American people and the peoples of the Pacific Theater..."
One thing I would be more interested in seeing is whether or not the trial would force Japan to apologize for its actions in the Pacific Theater of War (e.g. "comfort women", Unit 731, slave labor, ethnic cleansing). Sixty years after the Second World War, and Japan vehemently denies many of the crimes committed by the Japanese military...
Wendell- Hell No!! There is no way that any American naval leader will let Isoroku Yamamoto serve in the politics of Japan. He could certainly write a book similar to Shintaro Ishihara's Japan Must Say No!! , but any active political life is to be thoroughly discouraged.
Cockroach- More likely, after an exhaustion of legal appeals, Isoroku Yamamoto would be charged with "war crimes against the American people and the peoples of the Pacific Theater..."
One thing I would be more interested in seeing is whether or not the trial would force Japan to apologize for its actions in the Pacific Theater of War (e.g. "comfort women", Unit 731, slave labor, ethnic cleansing). Sixty years after the Second World War, and Japan vehemently denies many of the crimes committed by the Japanese military...
Well That May Be True...
Wendell- The problem is that politically Isoroku Yamamoto is too big a target not to miss. He was the architect of the Attack on Pearl Harbor...It would be like asking present-day New Yorkers not to execute Osama bin Laden after he is captured. After the "Day of Infamy" speech the stakes are too high not to have him executed....
Wendell- The problem is that politically Isoroku Yamamoto is too big a target not to miss. He was the architect of the Attack on Pearl Harbor...It would be like asking present-day New Yorkers not to execute Osama bin Laden after he is captured. After the "Day of Infamy" speech the stakes are too high not to have him executed....
Pearl was supposed to happen *after* start of war...
Japanese diplomats were supposed to deliver declaration of war a couple of hours before Pearl attack.
They didn't.
IIRC, due delays in de-crypting, transcription etc, they were informed of Pearl attack when they tried to deliver their message.
As diplomats, they understood this was 'Not Cricket', and the US population was going to be very, very annoyed.
IIRC, Yamamoto was furious. This flouted his honour-code. It also meant the US would now see the Pacific war as a 'grudge match', one not amenable to a negotiated armistice. It was going to be 'win or lose' and, as he'd predicted, IJN could only run wild for the year or so before the US' latent industrial capacity got up to speed. The Pearl 'foul' meant US response would not be fettered by indifference... so even faster and meaner than predicted.
Somehow, I don't think he would have been too surprised by the nukes.
Timing wasn't Yamamoto's fault --he was 'framed'-- and he seems to have fought a clean war. I reckon a good lawyer could have got him off the capital charges.
Would have been nice to sit him and Rommel together post-war for a long natter about purblind politicians...
Japanese diplomats were supposed to deliver declaration of war a couple of hours before Pearl attack.
They didn't.
IIRC, due delays in de-crypting, transcription etc, they were informed of Pearl attack when they tried to deliver their message.
As diplomats, they understood this was 'Not Cricket', and the US population was going to be very, very annoyed.
IIRC, Yamamoto was furious. This flouted his honour-code. It also meant the US would now see the Pacific war as a 'grudge match', one not amenable to a negotiated armistice. It was going to be 'win or lose' and, as he'd predicted, IJN could only run wild for the year or so before the US' latent industrial capacity got up to speed. The Pearl 'foul' meant US response would not be fettered by indifference... so even faster and meaner than predicted.
Somehow, I don't think he would have been too surprised by the nukes.
Timing wasn't Yamamoto's fault --he was 'framed'-- and he seems to have fought a clean war. I reckon a good lawyer could have got him off the capital charges.
Would have been nice to sit him and Rommel together post-war for a long natter about purblind politicians...
Execution
He may have waged a clean war, but the animus after Pearl Harbor would've been too strong. Waging aggressive war would've been the official charge but the real crime would've been the sneak attack.
He may have waged a clean war, but the animus after Pearl Harbor would've been too strong. Waging aggressive war would've been the official charge but the real crime would've been the sneak attack.
I think another approach to the question how would the rest of the Pacific war gone had Yamamoto not been shot down? He was a major player in the strategic planning so his survivial could have changed the later years of the war. (Japan would still not win, but they might have been able to inflict heavier loses or delay US operations)
He'd either:
A) Get executed (most likely)
B) Get life in Jail (2nd most likely)
C) Get a really long time in Jail, at which time he writes his memoirs ("Sleeping Giant"), in which he woes about how Imperial Japan should never have confronted America until it was absolutely necessary. (Would be the most likely thing to occur in a Novel)
A) Get executed (most likely)
B) Get life in Jail (2nd most likely)
C) Get a really long time in Jail, at which time he writes his memoirs ("Sleeping Giant"), in which he woes about how Imperial Japan should never have confronted America until it was absolutely necessary. (Would be the most likely thing to occur in a Novel)
Chinese Restaurant
Saw an article the other day about a restaurant in the PRC somewhere that won't serve Japanese tourist or businesspeople unless they first apologize for the aggression of the 1930's and 40's.
Saw an article the other day about a restaurant in the PRC somewhere that won't serve Japanese tourist or businesspeople unless they first apologize for the aggression of the 1930's and 40's.