KEY PLAYER: ISOROKU YAMAMOTO

Isoroku Yamamoto was born as Takano Isoroku on 4 April 1884 in Nagaoka, in the Niigata Prefecture on the west coast of Honshu. An above average student, Isoroku entered the Japanese Naval Academy in 1900 and, after graduating, went to sea during the Russo-Japanese War.

The following decade, his life began a steep upward trajectory when in 1913 he entered the Japanese Naval Staff College. Afterwards, Isoroku was adopted by the Yamamoto family, and subsequently changed his name to Isoroku Yamamoto. The adoption was a routine occurrence in Japanese culture by families that lacked a male heir.

Before the close of the decade,