[Teetop]

I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, upon learning of the success of the attack on Pearl Harbor
http://worldwar2history.info/quotes/

Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto - December 7, 1941
"I fear that all I have done is awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve."
http://www.nhhouserepublicanalliance.org/notable_quotes.htm

http://if_i_could_only_fly.tripod.com/makotribute/id9.html

Yamamoto attended the Naval War College during the "teens" and later studied at Harvard University. As a Captain, he served as Naval Attache to the United States in 1925-28. In the late 1920s and during the 1930s, he held a number of important positions, many of them involved with Japanese naval aviation.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-for/japan/japrs-xz/i-yamto.htm

Isoruko Yamamoto was the one who said this. He knew what America's power was from being in America for so many years. Just because it was also quoted in a movie or two, doesn't change the fact he actually said it.

[toddst]

Thanks for sorting the Yamamoto quote out so quickly. I was sure he did say it but hadn't come up with good sources.

[LS]

You have cited "pop" sources, but these are WRONG. Virtually every serious history of the war in the Pacific, especially Japanese sources, attribute nothing of the sort to Yamamoto. The closest ANY Japanese leader came to saying this was Nagumo, but even then it isn't really a direct quote. This is quite a myth, though. (And, being from Dayton, I well know Yamamoto visited Wright Field).

[caltrop]

Great quotes. I'm particularly pleased to see the first Yamamoto quote which I hadn't seen in print before.

[George W. Bush]

You didn't produce any credible sources for attributing this remark to Yamamoto.

The historians at the Park Service's memorial in Pearl Harbor specifically deny it has any historical basis. They say it became "instant history" after the Tora Tora Tora movie.

Too bad. Such a useful quote. But it belongs on snopes.com.