Yamamoto Isoroku was born in 1884 to a samurai family. Early in life, the boy, thanks to missionaries, was exposed to American and Western culture. In 1901, he passed the Imperial Naval Academy entrance exams with the objective of becoming a naval officer. Yamamoto genuinely respected the West—an attitude not shared by his academy peers. The IJN was significantly influenced by the British Royal Navy (RN), but for utilitarian reasons: mastery of technology, strategy, and tactics. Japanese military disdain for the West was probably because France, Germany, and Russia successfully demanded that Japan return to China a strategic peninsula in southern Manchuria it had seized after its victory in the 1894–1895 Sino-Japanese War. Despite allegations he was pro-Western, Yamamoto worked hard to understand Western technological, political, and military superiority.
Yamamoto graduated in spring 1904 and was appointed gunnery specialist. He was soon on the cruiser Nisshin, fighting in the Russo-Japanese War, and was a combatant in the decisive naval battle of the Tsushima Straits, where he was seriouslywounded but retained command of his ship’s cannon batteries. Officially commended for bravery, Yamamoto began his ascent through naval ranks.
