Editing Isoroku Yamamoto (section)

==Death==
{{Main|Operation Vengeance}}
[[File:Yamamoto last image alive.jpg|thumb|Admiral Yamamoto, a few hours before his death, saluting Japanese naval pilots at [[Rabaul]], April 18, 1943]]
[[File:Hideki Tojo bows in front of a portrait of late Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.jpg|thumb|right|[[Prime Minister of Japan|Prime Minister]] [[Hideki Tojo]] bowing to a portrait of Yamamoto, following the return of his ashes to Japan, May 1943]]
[[File:Japan-State-Funeral-for-Marshal-Admiral-Isoroku-Yamamoto (cropped).png|thumb|right|Yamamoto's state funeral, 5 June 1943]]
[[File:Yamamoto's ashes on Musashi.jpg|thumb|Yamamoto's ashes are carried from the [[Japanese battleship Musashi|battleship ''Musashi'']] at Kisarazu, Japan on May 23, 1943.]]
To boost morale following the defeat at Guadalcanal, Yamamoto decided to make an inspection tour throughout the [[Pacific Ocean Theater of World War II|South Pacific]]. It was during this tour that U.S. officials commenced an operation to kill him. On April 14, 1943, the United States naval intelligence effort, codenamed "[[Magic (cryptography)|Magic]]", intercepted and decrypted a message containing specifics of Yamamoto's tour, including arrival and departure times and locations, as well as the number and types of aircraft that would transport and accompany him on the journey. Yamamoto, the itinerary revealed, would be flying from [[Rabaul]] to [[Balalae Airport|Balalae Airfield]], on an island near [[Bougainville Island|Bougainville]] in the [[Solomon Islands]], on the morning of April 18, 1943.

President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] may have authorized [[Secretary of the Navy]] [[Frank Knox]] to "get Yamamoto", but no official record of such an order exists,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=C|first=Arvanitakis, Adonis|date=2015-03-24|title=Killing a Peacock: A Case Study of the Targeted Killing of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto|url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA623450|language=en|journal=|access-date=May 10, 2019|archive-date=June 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603013025/http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA623450|url-status=live}}</ref> and sources disagree whether he did so.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|title=U.S. Navy codebreakers, linguists, and intelligence officers against Japan, 1910–1941 : a biographical dictionary|last=Maffeo|first=Steven|isbn=978-1442255647|location=Lanham, MD|pages=493|oclc=914224225|year=2015}}</ref>  Knox essentially let Admiral [[Chester W. Nimitz]] make the decision.<ref name="auto"/> Nimitz first consulted Admiral [[William Halsey Jr.]], Commander, South Pacific, and then authorized the mission on April 17 to intercept and shoot down Yamamoto's flight ''en route''. A squadron of [[United States Army Air Forces]] [[Lockheed P-38 Lightning]] aircraft were assigned the task as only they possessed sufficient range. Select pilots from three units were informed that they were intercepting an "important high officer", with no specific name given.

On the morning of April 18, despite urging by local commanders to cancel the trip for fear of ambush, Yamamoto's two [[Mitsubishi G4M]] bombers, used as fast transport aircraft without bombs, left Rabaul as scheduled for the {{Convert|315|mi|km|abbr=on}} trip. Sixteen P-38s intercepted the flight over Bougainville, and a dogfight ensued between them and the six escorting [[Mitsubishi A6M Zero]]es. [[First Lieutenant]] [[Rex T. Barber]] engaged the first of the two Japanese transports, which turned out to be T1-323, the one Yamamoto was travelling in. He fired on the aircraft until it began to spew smoke from its left engine. Barber turned away to attack the other transport as Yamamoto's aircraft crashed into the jungle.

Yamamoto's body, along with the crash site, was found the next day in the jungle of the [[Bougainville Island|island of Bougainville]] by a Japanese search-and-rescue party, led by army engineer Lieutenant Tsuyoshi Hamasuna. According to Hamasuna, Yamamoto had been thrown clear of the plane's wreckage, his white-gloved hand grasping the hilt of his [[katana]], still upright in his seat under a tree. Hamasuna said Yamamoto was instantly recognizable, head dipped down as if deep in thought. A [[post-mortem]] disclosed that Yamamoto had received two [[.50 BMG|.50-caliber]] bullet wounds, one to the back of his left shoulder and another to the left side of his lower jaw that exited above his right eye. The Japanese navy doctor examining the body determined that the head wound had killed Yamamoto. The more violent details of Yamamoto's death were hidden from the Japanese public. The medical report was changed "on orders from above", according to biographer Hiroyuki Agawa.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pj3t74K8hq4C&pg=PA343 |page=343 |last=Gamble |first=Bruce |title=Fortress Rabaul: The Battle for the Southwest Pacific, January 1942&nbsp;– April 1943 |publisher=Zenith Imprint |year=2010 |isbn=978-0760323502}}</ref><ref>Agawa 2000, p. 364</ref>

[[File:Grave of Isoroku Yamamoto.jpg|thumb|Yamamoto's grave at [[Tama Cemetery]]]]
Yamamoto's death was a major blow to Japanese military morale.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pricer |first=Douglas |title=Cornerstones of Courage: The Story of Ssgt. William J. Bordelon, USMC |year=2014 |publisher=Xlibris |isbn=978-1499012514 |page=73}}</ref><ref name="Stille2012">{{cite book |author=Mark Stille |title=Yamamoto Isoroku |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=weO6CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 |year=2012 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1849087322 |page=59}}</ref> His staff cremated his remains at [[Buin, Papua New Guinea]], and his ashes were returned to Tokyo aboard the battleship {{ship|Japanese battleship|Musashi||2}}, his last flagship. He was given a full [[state funeral]] on June 5, 1943,<ref>Glines, 1991, p. 110</ref> where he received, posthumously, the title of [[Gensui (Imperial Japanese Navy)|Marshal Admiral]] and was awarded the [[Order of the Chrysanthemum]] (1st Class). He was also awarded [[Nazi Germany]]'s [[Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords]]. Some of his ashes were buried in the public [[Tama Cemetery]], Tokyo (多摩霊園) and the remainder at his ancestral burial grounds at the temple of Chuko-ji in [[Nagaoka, Niigata|Nagaoka City]]. He was succeeded as commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet by Admiral [[Mineichi Koga]].