That was because the US under valued what is call the 4 arm of defence, the merchant marine. There were so few freighters that any loss was costly. (my nit pick)
That’d do it.
This is a common misconception. The japanese leadership (including Yamamoto) had intended to break off the on-going negotiations to resolve Japanese-American relations just prior to the attack. A long encrypted message was transmitted to the japanese embassy the evening before, but their staff didn’t decrypt it until the next day and it was delivered to the US Secretary of State Hull several hours after the attack.
Records indicate Japan didn’t formulate a declaration of war until news of the successful attack. The notification delivered to Hull didn’t even severe diplomatic relations. Of course it’s possible Yamamoto was misled by his superiors on the content of the note.
I can’t believe that I am responding to this 6 year old thread but Yamamoto wasn’t assassinated, he was ambushed. It was know where he was going to be and a trap was set. Anyways the word used doesn’t really matter since he was a legitimate target.
They are not mutually exclusive. JFK’s route was well known. He was assassinated *and *ambushed.
I personally think that “assassinated” has a distinct political connotation which makes the term inapplicable to Yamamoto’s death. Lincoln, Franz Ferdinand and JFK were assassinated; Lord Nelson, A.P. Hill and Yamamoto were casualties of war.
I think “assassinate” implies a planned, targeted murder, usually of somebody prominent or notable, carried out for a political or ideological motive.
But it does imply a murder. If the killing is regarded as justified - a judicial execution, an attack on a combatant in a war - then I don’t think we’d call it an assassination.
The victims of a terrorist bomb in a public place, say, aren’t assassinated, because they haven’t been selected for killing; they were just the people who happened to be there. But plant the same bomb to go off at the time and place of a cabinet meeting, and those who die can be said to have been assassinated.
I wouldn’t say Yamamoto was assassinated. He was an active combatant in a war.
Yes, but that didn’t stop the tank. So still an ‘inferior’ tactic.
I would guess the tank probably came to a halt when its commander’s head started rolling around the crew compartment. I know it would’ve distracted me a bit.