NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...

f, stiffly resisted the proposed raid. His planner
s worried that it would expose the Japanese aircra
ft carriers to devastating counterstrikes. Yamamot
o countered that the American Fleet was a “dagger
pointed at Japan’s heart,” and surmised that the a
ttack might even cause the Americans to recoil in
shock and despair, “so that the morale of the U.S.
Navy and the American people goes down to such an
extent that it cannot be recovered.” At last, he
threatened to resign unless his operation was appr
oved, and Admiral Nagano capitulated: “If he has t
hat much confidence, it’s better to let Yamamoto g
o ahead.”
Yamamoto appreciated the irony: having risked his
life to prevent war with the United States, he was
now its architect. “What a strange position I fin
d myself in,” he wrote a friend, “having been assi
gned the mission diametrically opposed to my own p
ersonal opinion, with no choice but to push full s
peed in pursuance of that mission. Alas, is that f
ate?”
And yet even in the final weeks of peace, Yamamoto
continued to urge that the wiser course was not t
o fight the United States at all. “We must not sta
rt a war with so little a chance of success,” he t
old Admiral Nagano. He recommended abrogating the
Tripartite Pact and pulling Japanese troops out of
China. Finally, he hoped that the emperor would i
ntervene with a “sacred decision” against war. But
the emperor remained silent.
On Dec. 7, 1941, all eight battleships of the Paci
fic Fleet were knocked out of action in the first
half hour of the conflict. More than 180 American
planes were destroyed, mostly on the ground, repre
senting about two-thirds of the total American mil
itary aircraft in the Pacific theater. The Japanes
e carriers escaped with the loss of just 29 planes.
The Japanese people exulted, and Yamamoto was lift