Admiral Yamamoto studied at Harvard University in the 1920s. “When they introduced him to the game of poker, he became a fanatical poker player who would stay up all night, winning hand after hand.

And what did he do with his poker winnings–lead the good life? No, not at all: he hitchhiked around the country during the summer, exploring America.”

We forget that Yamamoto had visited the United States, spend some time at Harvard, knew America’s ways and means. That is why he knew after Pearl Harbor that Japan would face certain defeat in any prolonged war. He could have been a voice of reason had he lived longer.

A delegation of Japanese naval officers led by Captain Isoroku Yamamoto (2R in this photo) visits the United States Naval War College.

Years later, as a naval attaché at the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., and still a compulsive poker player, Yamamoto gambled with members of the United States military. “Spurred on by his victories,” Morris writes, “he developed contempt for the mental agility of his American naval opponents at the poker table.”

“Yamamoto wasn’t a great poker player for nothing,” writes Morris. He resolved, as in poker, to “blow the best player out of the game, good and early….The shame of the Joint Chiefs was their lack of imagination in trying to figure out their opponent.

They thought of him as a traditional Japanese who would do everything ‘by the book’ (just as they did). They failed to consider that maybe, just maybe, Isoroku Yamamoto was more American than they were.”

Admiral Yamamoto absolutely knew that was going to happen.

‘ A common quotation attributed to Yamamoto predicting the future outcome of a naval war against the United States is, “I can run wild for six months… after that, I have no expectation of success”.’

“Yamamoto, when once asked his opinion on the war, pessimistically said that the only way for Japan to win the war was to dictate terms in the White House.”

But, unfortunately, he had absolutely no choice about it at all. The Japanese Army had complete control of the Civilian government, and the Japanese Emperor had the status of a God to everyone in Japan, including Yamamoto.

If a god tells you to attack Pearl Harbor, you do it. If he refused and fought against doing it, the Japanese army would have killed him.