"What a strange position I find myself in," [Yamamoto] wrote a friend, "having been assigned the mission diametrically opposed to my own personal opinion, with no choice but to push full speed in pursuance of that mission. Alas, is that fate?"

A brief account of how one of the biggest critics of Japan's war policy became the mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attacks. (SLNYT)
posted by swift on Dec 7, 2011 - 44 comments

Admiral Yamamoto never said "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve" (or something like that) after Pearl Harbor. That line came from Tora! Tora! Tora! Worth noting because an innumerable number of newspaper columnists have been "quoting" Yamamoto in light of the WTC attack.
posted by mcwetboy on Sep 17, 2001 - 12 comments