Was the Killing of Admiral Yamamoto a war crime?

[Cammin1]

No, not at all.

[Panzermahn]

Yamamoto made plans to visit the Japanese controlled Bougainville on 18th April. He sent out details of his itinerary and this information was intercepted by US intelligence. When Admiral Chester Nimitz heard the news he consulted with William Knox, the Navy Secretary, and Admiral William Halsey, and it was decided to try an assassinate the man responsible for Pearl Harbor

source

http://web311.pavilion.net/2WWyamamoto.htm

[Penn44]

Yamamoto made plans to visit the Japanese controlled Bougainville on 18th April. He sent out details of his itinerary and this information was intercepted by US intelligence. When Admiral Chester Nimitz heard the news he consulted with William Knox, the Navy Secretary, and Admiral William Halsey, and it was decided to try an assassinate the man responsible for Pearl Harbor

Panzerhuhn:

Your point is?



Penn44


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[tonyh]

I think I remember reading somewhere that there was indeed some consternation among the general staff about the operation to assinate Yamamoto before the actual flight took place. I'll try to find it.

Tony

[alf]

This was not an assassination, even though the shooting down was based on intelligence obtained from intercepted naval communications, so the pilots knew exactly who they were killing.

Nor was it revenge for Pearl Harbor. It was simply that by killing the leader of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Japan's naval effort would be crippled.

Chris put it succiently,

No laws were violated at all , he was a uniform soldier inside a war-plane, part of a formation of war-planes not flying any sort of parley flag, or on a peace/parley mission or over neutral territory. The attack was carried out by American war-planes that were plainly marked as our planes over/in a recognized war-zone

,

[Wm. Harris]

Yamamoto made plans to visit the Japanese controlled Bougainville on 18th April. He sent out details of his itinerary and this information was intercepted by US intelligence. When Admiral Chester Nimitz heard the news he consulted with William Knox, the Navy Secretary, and Admiral William Halsey, and it was decided to try an assassinate the man responsible for Pearl Harbor


source

http://web311.pavilion.net/2WWyamamoto.htm

I didn't see anything in there outlining the alleged illegality of shooting down Yamamoto's aircraft.

[Panzermahn]

I think I remember reading somewhere that there was indeed some consternation among the general staff about the operation to assinate Yamamoto before the actual flight took place. I'll try to find it.

Tony

If

This was not an assassination, even though the shooting down was based on intelligence obtained from intercepted naval communications, so the pilots knew exactly who they were killing

then why there are consternation from the American general staffs about this operation?

[Mauser K98k]

then why there are consternation from the American general staffs about this operation?

If that were truly so, it possibly was a misplaced sense of "chivalry". The only reservations I remember reading about among the commanders was the fear of revealing the fact that they had broken the Japanese Naval code.

I think there is no more moral problem with Yamamoto's killing than a sniper taking out an enemy commander at 1000 yards with a bullet through the head.

[alf]

Senior Military Officers dont have many moral qualms from any Country about killing in wartime, after all the will sacrifice their own men. The consternation was primarily about revealing to the Japanese that their code was being read. When a viable scenario was available to bluff the Japanese about how the ambush would take place, the mission was ordered.

The Shooting Down of Admiral Yamamoto. On 14th April 1943 the US interception and decryption centre, Hypo or FRUPAC at Pearl Harbour, picks up a message from the Japanese South-eastern area Air Fleet to its outstations. On decryption of the message by Major Alva ‘Red’ Lasswell in JN25f, the main Japanese naval code, it turns out to be a flight plan for the tour of inspection that Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, Commander–in-Chief of the Japanese Navy, is going to make in the Pacific. After considerable heated discussion about the danger of giving away the code-reading secret and the question of whether it is sensible to kill off the wise but pessimistic chief Japanese strategist. President Roosevelt takes the decision to let an interception attempt take place. In passing down the instructions, Admiral Nimitz recommends that the Intelligence be ascribed to coast watchers in the Rabaul area. By the time of this mission on 18th April several other US and Australian code-breaking centres have decrypted similar messages, as the details of the tour are relayed in lesser codes to the remote outstations. A formation of two Japanese Betty bombers escorted by six Zero fighters is pin-pointed and attacked by a squadron of USAAF long-range Lightnings, at the extreme limit of their range, off the coast of Bougainville; Admiral Yamamoto is a fanatic for punctuality. The ace pilots shoot down the bombers and four Zeros for the loss of one P-38 Lightning. Admiral Halsey sends a message congratulating Major John Mitchell and ‘his hunters’, adding ‘Sounds as if one of the ducks in your bag is a peacock’. The Japanese recovered Yamamoto’s body and announced his death in action on 21st May. They investigated the obvious security leak, but formally determined that it was due to the reading of some local codes in the Rabaul area. It is an interesting question whether the more cautious British authorities would have risked the secret?

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/dchisto ... tioncode=3

[Polynikes]

I think we're agreed then. The planned killing of Yamamoto was NOT a breach of the Geneva or Hague conventions as he was a member of the Japanaese armed forces and a perfectly valid target.

Perhaps there's some confusion regarding the assasination of political leaders as some deem them civilians. Under president Ford, the USA placed a self-imposed moratorium on the assasination of foriegn leaders - specifically Castro.

In wartime though the gloves are off. The prime minister of Japan, Tojo was a perfectly legitimate target - whether or not he was in uniform. If you can make a case for an individual(s) being of the slightest importance to the enemy war effort, then you can make a solid case for attacking them.

Hence an attack on German V weapon scientists was legimate as was the attack on the Ruhr factories manned by civilians.

Cheers from Rich

[Rob - wssob2]

The killing of Admiral Yamamoto was not a war crime.

"...In April 1943 radio traffic analysis and cryptanalysts at Pearl Harbor, closely monitoring Japanese radio communications at Rabaul, were able to piece together the itinerary for Admiral Yamamoto's ill-fated inspection visit to the Northern Solomons. The result was the skillful, minutely times interception of his plane over Buin by American fighters. This striking success gave Nimitz's codebreakers days of anxiety again, lest the Japanese draw the obvious conclusion that their codes were being read."

- Eagle Against the Sun by Rpnald Spector, Free Press, 1985, p453-54

The Americans were concerned the Japanese would figure out that their codes were being deciphered - issues of secrecy and strategy, not morals and criminality.

"...The death of Admiral Yamamoto hit the Imperial Navy as severely as if one of its superbattleships has been sunk - a loss that was all the more keenly felt because they had been robbed of their leading naval strategist.

- The Pacific War by John Costello, Rawson & Wade Publishers, NY, 1981

BTW Nimitz, before proceeding with plans for the attack on Yamamoto's plane, asked permission from the US Secretary of the Navy and President FDR. The Secretary of the Navy even consulted several clergy members on the morality of killing enemy leaders in war (see Costello, p 401) before giving Nimitz the authorization to proceed.

Panzermahn must be upset because the name of the plan was "OPERATION VENGEANCE"

The plan name is perhaps understandable, given Yamamoto's "slight" involvement in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor Dec 7, 1941.

[ChristopherPerrien]

In this case people are mislead by the mis-use of the word "assassination".
No such thing took place. Granted Allied Generals were worried that if his death was perceived as an assassination in Japan by their press and people unfamiliar or trying to mislead with what is an "assassination" it might have prompted the Japanese to use real assassination methods against US command people, i.e using spies and such. Of course these US generals valued their own asses in this respect. And assassination using spys or traitors is considered a war-crime because these actions are out the Convention protocols.

[AHLF]

The Army Air Corp knew in advance of Yamamoto's flight and it was debated by the American commanders whether this ambush would be a violation of international law..

As i said again, Yamamoto also had political position in the Japanese cabinet and not just an Admiral only

Screw Yamamoto, he should have worn a parachute while onboard.


Penn44


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Actually, his was killed from a single bullet which hit his head...

[Mauser K98k]

An interesting sidebar:

Rear Admiral Ugaki, Yamamoto's Chief of Staff, was in the other Betty shot down into the Sea in that ambush. He was wounded, had to swim for it, and barely made it to shore with his life. Ugaki later went on to become a major proponent of the Kamikaze Corps, and flew the last Kamikaze mission himself on the day The Emperor surrendered. He must of ran out of fuel and dropped into the ocean, for no reports of any attacks were made that day by the US Navy.

[bonzen]

An interview with the pilot credited with shooting down Yamamoto ( airs frequently...he died within the last few years) explains what happened.
They were told to intercept a flight that included a high ranking Japanese at a certain time and place. The Lightnings flew low and were surprised when the Japanese planes were actually where they were supposed to be.
The two Japanese bombers were flying low over the jungle but were escorted by Zeros a few thousand feet above. The Zeros dived on the US planes. The US pilot cleared his guns just as the Japanese bombers flew right in front of him. He raked one quite by accident and then prepared to take on the Zeros. The bomber crashed into the jungle.
The short of it is, the US pilot claimed if he hadn't cleared his guns he never would have hit the plane with Yamamoto aboard. Yamamoto probably would have lived