THE LEGEND OF THE SLEEPING GIANT

The most famous quotation attributed to the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Naval Marshal General Isoroku Yamamoto, is, of course, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." The vividly-phrased declaration demonstrates that Admiral Yamamoto was extremely astute and accurately predicted the highly-negative American response to the attack.

The only problem with the quote is that there is no evidence that Yamamoto ever said or wrote it. No one appears to have found any documentation for it prior to it being uttered by the actor portraying Yamamoto at the end of the 1970 movie Tora! Tora! Tora!.

This is not to say, however, that the quotation does not accurately portray Yamamoto's actual beliefs. History does record that he was depressed after the attack and expressed grave reservations about the chance of his country's success in any conflict with the United States if the fighting went on for more than six months. The Harvard-educated admiral had spent considerable additional time in the USA as a naval attaché and was quite familiar with the American psyche as well as its industrial capabilities. He realized to his dismay that the inadvertent failure of the Japanese government to notify the Americans that the ongoing peace negotiations were terminated before launching the Pearl Harbor attack would enrage the American populace to the point where the United States would require revenge and would reject any negotiated settlement and early termination of the war. 

In a letter written on January 9, 1942, Yamamoto did state: "A military man can scarcely pride himself on having 'smitten a sleeping enemy'; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack." Perhaps this statement was the basis for the famous quotation from Tora! Tora! Tora!. One must admit, however, that this original assertion certainly does not make for a better sound bite.