My Father was at the Battle of Midway, but like your grandfather, he didn’t like talking about it. He passed 25 years ago.
I once read a brief biography of Yamamoto. There is no doubt that he was a brilliant man. I am not sure that intelligence made him a great Admiral tho.
He was certainly a good one however Pearl Harbor was his high water mark. I guess we thought he was pretty good as we went to a lot of trouble to get him.
If my memory is still good, Yamamoto always finished at the top of his class going all the way back to early childhood. That is something he shared with Robert E. Lee.
Yamamoto had an advantage over most Japanese military officers in that he had toured the U.S. and was aware of our massive industrial might. Something we no longer have. That is one reason he opposed war.
He knew we would win unless he could bring it to a speedy conclusion, either by negotiations or military victories.
Later
We could not give our Officers IQ tests. We were, however, required to give them two physical fitness tests a year. The results of these physical fitness tests were then entered on the written evaluations. The assumption was that if you were a person who trained hard for the physical fitness test, then you would also work hard to improve yourself in all other area. Careers were made or broken on this assumption. What is it now, thirteen years in Afghanistan? I think we should have an IQ test for Officers. Higher ranks would require higher IQs.
He was an America-phile and studied at Harvard, building lots of real relationships with Americans through his love of card games and most forms of gambling.
His thesis focused on the US oil industry.
He owned a convertible and “for research” he drove all over the American countryside, Oklahoma and Texas, looking at derricks and drilling operations.
He writes of one formative experience:
He and the highway traffic were idled as a group of large boulders were being cleared away from the road, something that would take 50 Japanese very much time in doing manually.
He watched in awe as the group of 3 Americans did it easily in 10 minutes, using very heavy machinery that made short work of the task.
He noted with dread if his Japan ever had to fight the USA, with such men and tools.
GREAT LESSON.
Funny coincidence, speaking of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. I just watched a terrific Korean movie tonight on Netflix, ‘My Way’, about a Korean who was compelled to serve in the Japanese, Soviet and German armies. Finally captured by us in Normandy in 1944. True story, albeit a bit dramatized.
I had a bad book that stated that Japan would attack at Pearl Harbor. It was printed in 1934.