[CaptainCrunch]

Yamamoto was as brilliant as they come in terms of Naval Tacticians. The Americans' really didn't have a thinking mans Admiral until Raymond Spruance took over Task Force 16 2 days before Midway.

Even before Yamamoto put together the operational plan for Pearl Harbor, he realized two things. They had to take the American's out of the war early, and that they wouldn't beat the American's in a protracted conventional war of attrition.

The sleeping giant quote has been debated over and over again throughout history. A lot of people think its a general statement about attacking Pearl Harbor. But the common school of thought was that it was a statement that reflected the bungling of Japan's foreign ministry that turned this from the opening shots of a war to a dastardly sneak attack that would anger their much larger foe.

The unfortunate thing for Yamamoto was that the expected American Aircraft carriers were out to sea, and the Japanese were victims of bad intelligence and luck. The Lexington was delivering fighters to Midway. Enterprise was returning from Wake Island and a combination of bad weather and the Enterprises' need to refuel its excorts delayed its return to Pearl by a day. The Saratoga was picking up a shipment of fighters in San Diego.

Again bad intelligence. If the Japanese would have waited for a day or two they could have caught the American carriers in the attack, and chances are as Yamamoto was hoping the American's would see reason and sue for peace.

As it was, and I'm using an Edmonton term here, the Pearl Harbor attack was visually brilliant for the Japanese as they sank or damaged 19 major surface combatants including 8 battleships, however by failing to trap and sink the 3 US Carriers the Japanese and Yamamoto knew that they'd have to step up their fortification of the pacific, but I think that Yamamoto knew deep down that they were going to lose the war because of those three American Carriers.

Make no mistake he had a very good war, if he would have been killed at Midway or before it, he'd be looked at as the greatest fighting Admiral in history, instead he saw his gains rolled back and his men and ships slaughtered as the weight of American Industry and superior technology finish his nation. But at least he died before he saw the atomic bombs dropped.