Yamamoto Isoroku: book critique

I was not  planning to expand my little blog into the area of historical publication and analysis but during research for one of my projects a came across this book: Yamamoto Isoroku by Mark Stille, published Osprey publishing in Leadership-Strategy-Conflict series. The reason behind this purchase was lack of English printed source on this famous admiral. The result of reading through this book is a really mixed feelings about book and the way in puts an information an facts. 

Perhaps it was my expectations were a bit too high, for I wanted to see and in-depth analysis of Yamamoto's past, turning points, important influences, positions on key events in World War 2, analysis of strategy and tactics used by him, and perhaps even reflection on his actions and overall Japanese strategy in WW2. That was not to be. 

"Mark E. Stille (Commander, United States Navy, retired) received his BA in History from the University of Maryland and also holds an MA from the Naval War College. He has worked in the intelligence community for 30 years including tours on the faculty of the Naval War College, on the Joint Staff and on US Navy ships. He is currently a senior analyst working in the Washington DC area. He is the author of numerous Osprey titles, focusing on naval history in the Pacific." 

So naturally, reader would succumb to the weight of authority and expertise. Well why shouldn't you? Author stands his position in the beginning of the book that: "as with any famous military commander there is always reality and myth. For Yamamoto they stand in stark contrast." After that author goes in lengths about how overestimated, under planned and with how many gross mistakes Yamamoto went through his career until his death by heroic American interceptors. He pinpoints and emphasizes Yamamoto's weakens, sins and mistakes puts a label on them and then describes how Americans were superior to Yamamoto.

One of the few label author puts are: gambler, womanizer, indecisive and political admiral. Only by the end of the book, he gives a voice to people who served under Yamamoto's command to mention that he was a very humble person, disliked the "aura of heroism" around him and was loved and obeyed without question by his men. His major achievement: the attack on Pearl Harbor is portrayed as work of one man in charge of planning Commander Genda Minoru and his attempts to persuade reluctant Naval General Staff as behavior of capricious and moody gambler not a calculated risk of an admiral. Mark Stille rejoices in scrutinizing mistakes, but gives no clue of whatsoever under what conditions, intelligence, resources and strategy Yamamoto was operating. By the end of the book he gives a portray of Admiral Nimitz, who (as you might expect) is decisive, aggressive and dedicated to the victory of his nation. To make matters even more propagandistic, he is compared to Yamomoto, suffering from illness, stress, fatigue but still enjoying good food and luxurious quarters and his flagship Yamato. 

The strong and positive sides of Yamamoto's character are generally mentioned in the descriptive manner: like his mastery of kendo, skill in appointing the right people for the job, or mentioned in diminished manner: like Yamamoto's service in aviation and impact of his activities on creation of Japanese naval aviation are mentioned as non-sufficient, despite the fact that he lobbied creation of G4M bombers and creation of carrier fleet in opposition to battleship-emphasized navy. The fact that he actually succeeded to influence that policy is not even mentioned. 

To make matters worse author shows complete lack of understandings of Japanese culture, it "yes" and "no", its obvious differences from American culture and approach. To be frank, there is not even an attempt to do so. To illustrate that, author emphasize that Japan's supply lines suffered heavily from American submarines, while Allies enjoyed relatively undisturbed shipping and suppl lines. Author does not notice the fundamental difference in psychology and means of waging the war: Japanese saw conflict as battle of two equals, two samurais if like, while American approach emphasizes production numbers and undisturbed supply line. 

"Liberty ship" - the famous transport was an epitome of this thinking: build more than they can sink. While Japanese preferred (and frankly were capable) of building less ships, but with better capabilities.Yamato - is a one of kind (plus its sistership) example of this thinking.  

In conclusion, should anybody consider buying this book? If that is your first book on Admiral Yamamoto, then avoid it. Wikipedia with its article on him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto does similar job and largely unbios towards him. If you already have a strong opinion or looking for it then you may try it. Even if you will find it lacking analysis (as i did) book still provides an overview of Yamamoto's life and biographies that followed on him. 

Sincerely yours,

Mark