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.

He died during an inspection tour of forward positions in the Solomon Islands when his aircraft (a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bomber) was shot down during an ambush by American P-38 Lightning fighter planes. Isoroku Yamamoto (山本 五十六 Yamamoto Isoroku? 4 April 1884 – 18 April 1943) was a Japanese Marshal Admiral and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. His death was a major blow to Japanese military morale during World War II.