Pearl Harbor’s Architect

Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943) was a Japanese Marshal Admiral of the Navy and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II until his death.

In the last episode of Hardcore History, Dan Carlin says of him: “Yamamoto is famous for being a crazy military genius and a crazy gambler. If you met him in person, you probably wouldn't be very intimidated. He stood about 5’3” or 5’4”. He was missing several major fingers from one hand. And he walked with a limp because an entire chunk of his leg had been torn off—along with those fingers, by the way—in probably the most famous naval battle in all of Japanese history. . . .

When Yamamoto presents the Pearl Harbor idea to the other admirals on the big decision board, it’s so considered so crazy and improbable that they reject it. . . . But after Yamamoto threatened to resign, they changed their minds. They’d rather accept an idea they thought was crazy than lose a guy who they knew to be a creative military genius. . . .

Yamamoto was a Gandhi-like figure who chain smoked and left trails of ashes behind him. He seems like an Einstein/Archimedes/Sheldon Cooper kind of figure. Doesn't bathe very often. Locks himself in completely darkened rooms naked for inspiration. And when it arrives, he frantically scribbles stuff down on little pieces of paper. It was a crazy wild guy like this who came up with an idea that was so improbable that nobody saw it coming—an idea that was so improbable that even people who heard about it in advance couldn't take it seriously.”