Yamamoto's Line That Wasn't

image via Wikipedia

We've all heard the line before. Whether we saw it on film, read about it in a book, or were taught it in history class. After the devastating attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto delivered one of the most famous quotes of all time:

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

With that one line, Admiral Yamamoto summed up the direction of the entire war for the Japanese.

image via Wikipedia

Hint: Not well.

After initial Japanese gains, the United States turned into a powerhouse of production (capable of building a ship from scratch in a mere four days) and Japan was soundly beaten.

There is just one problem with teaching that line; Yamamoto never said it.

Despite what Michael Bay or PBS might have you think, the famous quote was never said or written by Yamamoto. The first appearance of the line in any capacity was in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! So where did it come from in that film? Director Richard Fleischer says that historian Gordan Prange found the line in Yamamoto's diary.

A diary which no other historian has seen and most say doesn't exist, including Donald Goldstein, a friend of Prange. Goldstein has looked through all of Prange's material and can't find a scrap of reference to the "sleeping giant" quote, in writing or otherwise.

As far as anyone can tell, the line was put into the film as a way of summarizing Yamamoto's opinion of the Japanese war strategy. Given that the film was the closest Hollywood has ever gotten to a blockbuster documentary, the line has stuck as fact since then. And it only appeared in Pearl HArbor (2001) Because the Michael Bay straight up copied it from Tora! Tora! Tora!