WI Isoroku Yamamoto escaped attack

Mrstrategy

Banned
what would be different for the Japanese navy if admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was not attacked or escaped from the attack without major harm during ww2?
 
You mean the attack which killed him IOTL?

At this point, I don't think anything short of a miracle can save the Japanese navy from losing.
 

nbcman

Donor
Honestly, nothing as the US was going to steamroll the IJN regardless if he lived or died in 1943. Maybe he dies on Saipan instead of Admiral Nagumo. Otherwise he would end up on the block during the post-war trials and possibly executed.
 
Admiral Yamamoto might have sailed on the IJN BB Yamato on her last mission and watch on the Fleet Admiral's chair/post as their last Taskforce sailed into history....
 
You can't fight with what you don't have. The best strategist is useless without the tools to do the job.

Agreed, he probably sails with Yamato to Okinawa...
 
What crimes would he be charged with? Remember, it's the Navy, not the Army - so no Nanking or mistreatment of PoWs...
The Pearl Harbor attack was itself a criminal act, because it preceded any declaration of war or hostilities. Under the laws of war, everyone killed at Pearl were technically noncombatants
 
The Pearl Harbor attack was itself a criminal act, because it preceded any declaration of war or hostilities. Under the laws of war, everyone killed at Pearl were technically noncombatants
So, everyone the US killed in Vietnam and Iraq, for instance, let alone in interventions in the Caribbean and Latin America were all war crimes, too, since the US didn't declare war?
Ouch.
 
So, everyone the US killed in Vietnam and Iraq, for instance, let alone in interventions in the Caribbean and Latin America were all war crimes, too, since the US didn't declare war?
Ouch.
While the US did not declare war, they did cover their ass by giving public notice of hostilities. Vietnam, for example, was supposedly an internal police action to aid an Ally, a weak justification given how much bombing occurred in the North, but probably sufficient.

The same with Iraq; 1991 was connected with a UN resolution, and in 2003 the US made its intentions known that if Iraq didn't comply with American ultimatum, there would be hostilities.
 

Coulsdon Eagle

Monthly Donor
What crimes would he be charged with? Remember, it's the Navy, not the Army - so no Nanking or mistreatment of PoWs...

During the campaign in the NEI the Combined Fleet murdered in cold blood USN personnel (can't remember the small vessel involved) - believed in part to be because the IJN effort to sink them was so awful they wanted no survivors. I'll have to find my copy of "Rising Sun, Falling Skies" which notes this war crime was one that could be laid at Yamamoto's feet.
 
Otherwise he would end up on the block during the post-war trials and possibly executed.

The Pearl Harbor attack was itself a criminal act, because it preceded any declaration of war or hostilities. Under the laws of war, everyone killed at Pearl were technically noncombatants

Hold on, though: Minoru Genda was involved in planning the attack, and Mitsuru Fuchida actually took part. Neither of them were tried or executed: hell, Genda ended up as the JASDF's Chief of Staff and then went into politics.
 
During the campaign in the NEI the Combined Fleet murdered in cold blood USN personnel (can't remember the small vessel involved) - believed in part to be because the IJN effort to sink them was so awful they wanted no survivors. I'll have to find my copy of "Rising Sun, Falling Skies" which notes this war crime was one that could be laid at Yamamoto's feet.

It was DD Pope IIRC. And IJN sub crews killed survivors of sunken ships on more than one occasion...
 

nbcman

Donor
What crimes would he be charged with? Remember, it's the Navy, not the Army - so no Nanking or mistreatment of PoWs...
He was a senior official in the IJN and would have been charged for crimes against peace and planning an aggressive war like other senior military officials such as Admirals Nagano and Shimada. The architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor would have been charged without a doubt.

EDIT: All of the major defendants were charged for planning the war of aggression against the US according to Count 29 of the International Military Tribunal of the Far East. Admiral Yamamoto would have been included with the other major defendants.

Hold on, though: Minoru Genda was involved in planning the attack, and Mitsuru Fuchida actually took part. Neither of them were tried or executed: hell, Genda ended up as the JASDF's Chief of Staff and then went into politics.

They were too junior. They could have said they were following orders set from above. Admiral Yamamoto couldn't make such a defense.
 
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The only place I see him ending up, unless he doesn't die on Saipan or aboard Yamato, is at the end of a rope after a short drop.
 
The only place I see him ending up, unless he doesn't die on Saipan or aboard Yamato, is at the end of a rope after a short drop.

I could see him committing seppuku, especially if by doing so the Emperor could use that act to convince the militarists that the war was lost and that surrender was necessary...
 
I could see him committing seppuku, especially if by doing so the Emperor could use that act to convince the militarists that the war was lost and that surrender was necessary...
Which would be amusing in a dark way, since Yamamoto was the one who could say "I told you, you idiots" regarding attacking the US.
 
Could Yamamoto have had a successful career in post war Japan if he survived?

Some war criminals like Nobusuke Kishi (grandfather of the current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe) went on to high positions in the post war government.
 

trurle

Banned
Well, i suspect the Isoroku Yamamoto would be executed by fellow Japanese (or forced to suicide) before the war`s end if not killed in action. His policies were already out of favour by the time of his death in 1943, as evidenced by rapid cancellation of his offensive programs following his death. Most notable was I-400 submarines project which was supported far after its utility have vanished in middle 1942. Therefore, any discussion of I. Yamamoto surviving for post-war tribunal is a bit ASB topic.

I. Yamamoto main fallacy was the tendency to promote groupthink (in particular suppression of dissenting opinions of his officers). He was known to manipulate arbitrarily the "US decisions" in the wargames prior to the war. Given how catastrophic was war to the IJN, i think he will be out of command and probably executed by December 1944 (during battle of Leyte).
 
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