YAMAMOTO’S DECISION
A Play in Four Acts by Sherwood Ross
Copyright: 2000, Library of Congress
E-mail to sross1@ntelos.net
ABOUT THE PLAY
This is a play about the life and loves of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, and why he designed the attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, when he personally opposed war with America. It is also about his love for a prominent geisha, the torments of his wife, and how his decision to make the attack estranged him from a former admiral who was his closest friend. The play is set in Japan in the years leading up to the war and attempts to describe how the nation fell under the control of the military. This was the era when the Emperor took personal control of the Japanese Army, directing its invasion of Manchuria in 1931; its attack on Shanghai in 1932; and all-out war against China in 1937. It was also a time when military cliques and paramilitary gangs assassinated cabinet ministers and threatened to kill Yamamoto and other officers who opposed war with the West.
Exasperated with Japan’s war on China, the United States refused to sell oil to Japan. In response, the Imperial Army pressed for the invasion of the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. Because this move would draw the world’s two greatest sea powers -- Great Britain and America -- into the war on the Dutch side, the move was opposed by Japan’s Imperial Navy, the world’s third largest. Yamamoto had studied at Harvard and respected America’s industrial potential. He warned the nation that Japan could not win.
Although he might have retired, Yamamoto instead conceived the strategy of delivering a knock-out blow against America’s Pacific Fleet on the opening day of the war. This enabled Japanese forces afterwards to easily overrun British, American, and Dutch possessions in the Western Pacific.
For dramatic purposes, I have combined several of the Thirties’ military coup attempts into one event and have changed their chronology. I have also created characters patched together from several real life persons involved in those events and refer to them as "Naval Minister," or "Ambassador" rather than by their actual names, especially as I have taken some dramatic liberties. Yamamoto’s wife, Reiko, and his friend, Akio, the former Admiral, are based on actual persons but their characters have been changed. Wherever possible, though, Yamamoto’s speech is based on the historical record.
The production calls for an illuminated screen. Its purpose is to convey to audiences something of Japan’s historic past based on its works of art as well as photos of the warships discussed and film footage of the Pearl Harbor attack. Its use is optional.
Information that may be useful to the reader: In 1941, Hawaii was a possession of the United States, not yet a State. Pearl Harbor was the American naval base on Hawaii. The Japanese parliament is called the Diet. In the Thirties its power was subordinated to cabinets appointed by Emperor Hirohito and dominated by the military. Hara-kiri is a form of Japanese ritual suicide committed by plunging a knife into the gut. The samisen is a Japanese stringed instrument akin to the guitar. The Kempetai secret police were roughly equivalent to Hitler’s Gestapo. Japan’s military referred to their invasion of China as the "China Incident," not war.
-- Sherwood Ross, Charlottesville, Va., December, 2001
"Yamamoto's Decision" by Sherwood Ross IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED, TRANSMITTED, PRINTED OR PERFORMED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
"Yamamoto's Decision" was written by Sherwood Ross. The play has finished in the finals of two playwriting competitions, sponsored by the Riverside Stage in Wilton, Ct., and Theatre IV, in Richmond, Va. It has been read at Playwrights' Workshop in Montreal, Canada, at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C., and in part on South Dakota Public Radio from Rapid City, S.D.Scenes from "Yamamoto's Decision" have been read in takes at "No Shame" theatre, Charlottesville, Va. beginning December 14, 2001.
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