How fate killed Isoroku Yamamoto
By: Karthick Nambi
Tags: Culture, Japan, War, World, History

How fate killed Isoroku Yamamoto

A small change in Allied decision making fixed the fate of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Yamamoto. Source-Wikipedia

Subash Chandra Bose was the most wanted man in British India.His Majesty’s Governmetn feared that Bose could undermine British India’s morale and, in turn, affect British India’s support for Britain in World War II.

British intelligence got valuable information on the whereabouts of Subash Chandra Bose but gave it up for a higher profile enemy, Isoroku Yamamoto. It’s an intriguing tale of how a Japanese general unknowingly saved the life of Subhash Chandra Bose.

Who Was Bose?

Bose. Source-Wikipedia

Subhash Chandra Bose was born in Calcutta (modern Kolkata) in British India.

He passed the Civil service exams, which was considered the most challenging exam to crack in British India. Due to racial discrimination, the British Indian government refused to give him a proper position.

He quit his job and joined the Indian National Congress(INC). He rose to become the leader of INC. Due to his radical ideas and pressure from Mahatma Gandhi to promote his prodigy Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose left INC to form a left-wing party Forward Bloc.

Bose with Hitler.Source-Wikipedia

The secret agenda of Forward Bloc was to use violence to intimidate the British Indian government. The British Indian government branded Bose as a terrorist and kept him under house arrest.

He escaped from his house, and via Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, Bose reached Europe. Bose’s idea was to seek the help from the Axis Powers to liberate British India.

Bose was encouraged by the Nazi government, and he set up Azad Hind, a radio station to broadcast anti-British Indian government propaganda. At the peak of World War II, the German government was secretly planning an invasion of British India.

If Operation Barbarossa (the Invasion of Russia) succeeded. Germany’s Army Group B would link up with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps and Italian forces from Egypt and continue their march via Iran to British India. The hope was to link up with Japanese forces coming from Thailand in India.

Hitler knew India was the jewel in the British crown and wanted to snatch it. Bose was the right tool to instigate hatred in the mind of British Indian citizens. With Operation Barbarossa headed to a disaster, Germany dropped the invasion plans for British India. But a new superpower was eyeing India.

Rise Of Japan:

Yamamoto in pearl harbor planning.Source-Wikipedia

Japan rose from economic depression to become a major power in a short span.

After World War, I Japan concentrated on its expansionist policy. Japan invaded China in 1933, which drew heavy criticism.

Japan, which relied on the USA for most of its raw materials, faced an embargo for its military actions. Japan decided to expand into South East Asia and capture European colonies.

Japan’s mastermind behind this project was Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Yamamoto, the Japanese navy commander, was the spine of entire Japanese operations on the field in World War II. The successful Pearl Harbor attack on America’s Pacific Fleet in Hawaii was the brainchild of Yamamoto.

After the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan dragged the US into the war, and it had severe consequences. Meanwhile, Japan expanded its colonial borders and occupied French Indo-China (modern-day Vietnam), Malaysia, Indonesia, and Burma. Japan’s next target was British India.

Bose, who fought for a lost cause, now found a new ally in the form of Japan. Japan had captured many British Indian Army soldiers. Bose wanted to induct them into his newly formed Indian National Army or INA. Bose’s new hope was that the INA would fight alongside Japanese forces and liberate British India.

Fate:

Last photo of Yamamoto. Source-Wikipedia

By now, the US had decoded Japanese naval codes and deciphered most of the Japanese communications. In one such transmission, the US found two valuable information. On April 18, 1943

Bose will transfer from a German U-boat off the coast of Madagascar to a Japanese submarine for a voyage to Tokyo.

2) Yamamoto will visit Japanese troops stationed in the Solomon Islands for a briefing.

For the Allied forces, both leaders were prime targets, but if they attacked both the leaders simultaneously, the Japanese and German high commands could conclude that the USA had broken the Japanese naval code.

American leaders decided to spare Bose. Armed with Yamamoto’s travel itinerary, US fighter planes shot down his plane in Bougainville Island. The crash killed him instantly.

The operation was aptly named Operation Vengeance. Though there are questions on the ethics behind the action, after the death of Yamamoto, Japanese morale dropped drastically.

Yamamoto and Bose might have never met, but in a strange twist of fate, their lives were intertwined on April 18, 1943, when Allied forces took Yamamoto’s life to spare Bose’s life.