Yamamoto did what he had to do--he didnt suck or hate America. He opposed the attack on America, but he did the best that could be done. This Letter was written by Yamamoto to his friend and classmate, the retired Vice Admiral Teikichi Hori. The date is November 11, 1941, four weeks before Pearl Harbor, one week after the decision to go to war with the United States had been taken and communicated to the armed forces, four days after the Pearl Harbor task force had been ordered to its assembly point in Hitokappu Bay in the Kuriles.
Friend Hori,
Many thanks for all you did for me at the time of my departure. Your letter sent from Ofuna has been received.
1. My family I leave to your guidance while I am away.
2. I recognize that the general situation has already come to the worst.
How miserable it is to have to say, as did Admiral Yamanashi, that this is fate. But then further arguments pro and con will avail nothing.
Now that we have reached the stage where “the Emperor alone must grieve over the state of affairs in the land,” the only thing that can save the situation is the final Imperial decision. But how difficult that will be, in view of the present situation in the country!
3. What a strange position I find myself in now —having to make a decision diametrically opposed to my own personal opinion, with no choice but to push full speed in pursuance of that decision. Is that, too, fate?
4. And what a bad start we’ve made, with one serious accident after another resulting from blunders from the very beginning of the year!
Not sure why grandpa joined the navy after that. Maybe he was drafted. I don’t remember that part of the story. That would have been gosh. 1942 if my math of how old my parents are is right
Yamamoto did what he had to do--he didnt suck or hate America. He opposed the attack on America, but he did the best that could be done. This Letter was written by Yamamoto to his friend and classmate, the retired Vice Admiral Teikichi Hori. The date is November 11, 1941, four weeks before Pearl Harbor, one week after the decision to go to war with the United States had been taken and communicated to the armed forces, four days after the Pearl Harbor task force had been ordered to its assembly point in Hitokappu Bay in the Kuriles.
I’m not impressed so far.