{"id":79172,"date":"2025-07-23T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/07\/23\/letters-on-display-from-the-mastermind-of-pearl-harbor-attack\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:11:11","slug":"letters-on-display-from-the-mastermind-of-pearl-harbor-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/veterans\/military-history\/2025\/07\/23\/letters-on-display-from-the-mastermind-of-pearl-harbor-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters on display from the mastermind of Pearl Harbor attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the first time, two letters written by Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto \u2014 the architect behind the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor \u2014 have been made public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Donated by the naval officer\u2019s descendants, the two letters are now on display at the Fukushima Museum in Japan to mark the 80th anniversary of V-J Day this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While once decried as a villain, postwar investigations of<b> <\/b>Yamamoto have considerably changed the picture of the Japanese admiral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This week, letters written by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in early 1942 while aboard the battleships Nagato and Yamato will be made public for the first time. In the letters to his wife&#39;s parents, Yamamoto expressed concern over Japan&#39;s euphoria following the attack on Pearl Harbor,\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BDnkyu6iA0\">pic.twitter.com\/BDnkyu6iA0<\/a><\/p>&mdash; U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NavalInstitute\/status\/1945651445191065635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 17, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was a peculiar tragedy of Japan\u2019s ultranationalist psychodrama,\u201d writes Ian Toll in his trilogy on the Pacific War, \u201cthat the men best qualified to deal with the West were shunted to the margins of power.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Toshikazu Kase, a chief secretary to the foreign minister throughout the war years, put it more bluntly when he wrote, \u201cEvents sometimes overwhelm you, surge around you, and carry you along. You can\u2019t always move them. One man\u2019s will is not enough to do anything. War has a life of its own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"5754\" height=\"4527\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/80-G-40056.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-109772\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/80-G-40056.jpg.jpg 5754w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/80-G-40056.jpg.jpg?resize=300,236 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/80-G-40056.jpg.jpg?resize=768,604 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/80-G-40056.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,806 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/80-G-40056.jpg.jpg?resize=1536,1208 1536w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/80-G-40056.jpg.jpg?resize=2048,1611 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 5754px) 100vw, 5754px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">View of Pearl Harbor looking southwesterly from the hills northward. Taken during the Japanese raid on Dec. 7, 1941, with anti-aircraft shell bursts overhead. (National Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yamamoto was among those officers left adrift among the growing tides of war. While not shunted to the margins of power, the admiral was torn between a sense of patriotic duty and the reality on the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Oct. 14, 1940, Yamamoto wrote to Kumao Harada, secretary to Prince Saionji: \u201cTo fight the United States is like fighting the whole world. But it has been decided. So I will fight the best I can. Doubtless I shall die on board Nagato. Meanwhile Tokyo will be burnt to the ground three times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www3.nhk.or.jp\/nhkworld\/en\/news\/20250716_14\/\" rel=\"\">NHK World Japan<\/a>, the letters on display were sent to the naval officer\u2019s wife\u2019s parents in Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Museum officials note that the content of the letters relay that Yamamoto was calmly assessing the early stages of the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the letters, dated Jan. 13, 1942, was written while aboard his flagship Nagato (one month later the Yamato would become the admiral\u2019s flagship). He wrote that he engaged in a mission of heavy responsibility and that while it managed to achieve a minor victory, this was due to the United States\u2019 inattention and negligence. A full-scale battle, he continued, would start later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other letter on display, dated April 1942, was written while he was aboard the Yamato in which he discussed his desire to visit the graves of his ancestors after the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1094\" height=\"742\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mission-members.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-109775\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mission-members.jpg.jpg 1094w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mission-members.jpg.jpg?resize=300,203 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mission-members.jpg.jpg?resize=768,521 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mission-members.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,695 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1094px) 100vw, 1094px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Members of the Yamamoto Mission, including Capt. Thomas Lanphier Jr., third from left, front row. (National Archives)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yamamoto would be killed one year later, on April 19, 1943, over the skies above Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. The hatred among the Americans for the mastermind of Pearl Harbor was palpable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the American flyboys, Maj. John W. Mitchell, commanding officer of the U.S. Army Air Forces\u2019 339th Fighter Squadron, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.historynet.com\/death-by-p-38\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.historynet.com\/death-by-p-38\/\">reportedly asked upon receiving the mission to kill the admiral<\/a>, \u201cWho\u2019s Yamamoto?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Capt. Thomas Lanphier Jr. simply said, \u201cPearl Harbor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re going to get this bird,\u201d the Navy planners told Rear Adm. Marc A. Mitscher and Lanphier. \u201cWe mean for you to nail him if you have to ram him in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donated by the naval officer\u2019s descendants, the two letters are now on display at the Fukushima Museum in Japan to mark the 80th anniversary of V-J Day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":109768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":87,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,87,12,26,19,65],"tags":[8468,8469],"coauthors":[3383],"class_list":["post-79172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-military-history","category-news","category-newsletters","category-veterans","category-your-navy","tag-military-history","tag-war-history"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"37NXWAWEMJESRC2F7OCTEW7YJQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/military-history\/2025\/07\/23\/letters-on-display-from-the-mastermind-of-pearl-harbor-attack\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Letters on display from the mastermind of Pearl Harbor attack - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Donated by the naval officer\u2019s descendants, the two letters are now on display at the Fukushima Museum in Japan to mark the 80th anniversary of V-J Day.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letters on display from the mastermind of Pearl Harbor attack\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Donated by the naval officer\u2019s descendants, the two letters are now on display at the Fukushima Museum in Japan to mark the 80th anniversary of V-J Day.\" 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