“Even a burglar hesitates to go back for more.” – Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Takano was born in Japan on April 4, 1884, and adopted into the Yamamoto family in 1916.

He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy the same year Admiral Husband Kimmel graduated from Annapolis.

Yamamoto also attended Harvard University as well as the U.S. Naval War College. Promoted to Admiral in 1940, he was the mastermind of the Japanese plan to bomb the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

After the successful sneak attack on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese navy, under Yamamoto’s direction, successfully overran a number of British, Dutch, and American islands and territories from Wake Island to Malaya.

He was killed when his plane was shot down by U.S. fighters near the Solomon Islands in April 1943. Yamamoto, a hero in Japan, was given a state funeral and received the Iron Cross from Germany.