Editing Isoroku Yamamoto's sleeping giant quote (section)

==Similar sayings==
On December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, an inspirational statement was made by [[Don McNeill (radio presenter)|Don McNeill]] during the [[NBC]] radio broadcast of [[Don McNeill's Breakfast Club|Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club]]. His statement ended: {{Blockquote|...&nbsp;and also don’t forget, sometimes you can strike a giant who is dozing momentarily, when the giant is awakened, look out.}} 
A portion of the broadcast was replayed on the Pearl Harbor attack-themed episode of the [[Smithsonian Channel]] documentary program, [[The Lost Tapes (TV series)|''The Lost Tapes'']] (S1:E1). 

In ''The Reluctant Admiral'', [[Hiroyuki Agawa]] gives a quotation from a reply by Yamamoto to [[Taketora Ogata|Ogata Taketora]] on January 9, 1942, which is similar to the famous version: "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."<ref>''The Reluctant Admiral'', p. 285</ref>

[[File:Yamamoto what do you say america.jpg|thumb|A World War II poster depicting Isoroku Yamamoto with his quote "I am looking forward to dictating peace to the United States in the White House in Washington."]]
The other common quotation attributed to Yamamoto predicting the future outcome of a naval war against the United States is, "I can run wild for six months... after that, I have no expectation of success".<ref>Fumimaro Konoe, ''Konoye Ayamaro Ko Shuki (Memoirs of Prince Ayamaro Konoye)'', Asahi Shimbun-sha, 1946, p. 3.</ref> As it happened, the [[Battle of Midway]], the critical naval battle considered to be the turning point of the [[Pacific War|War in the Pacific]], concluded exactly 6 months after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Similar to the above quotation was another quotation: Yamamoto, when once asked his opinion on the war, pessimistically said that the only way for Japan to win the war was to dictate terms in the [[White House]].<ref>''The Reluctant Admiral'', p. 291.</ref> Yamamoto's meaning was that military victory, in a protracted war against an opponent with as much of a population and industrial advantage as the United States possessed, was completely impossible, a rebuff to the ''[[Kantai Kessen]]'' Decisive Battle Doctrine of those who thought that winning a single major battle against the [[United States Navy]] would end the war, just as the Japanese victory in the [[Battle of Tsushima]] had ended the [[Russo-Japanese War]] in 1905.

Yamamoto's quote about peace terms in the White House was abridged by Japanese propaganda to make it seem like an optimistic prediction; this version was promptly picked up by American propaganda to look even more boastful (see illustration).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historynet.com/have-you-heard-yamamoto.htm|title=Have You Heard?: The Secret Mission to Kill Yamamoto|author=Joseph Connor|date=February 2017|accessdate=February 8, 2022|publisher=[[World History Group|HistoryNet]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131103547/https://www.historynet.com/have-you-heard-yamamoto.htm|archive-date=January 31, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref>