Marsh Is.#335 Interception of Yamamoto - 1993 Imperforate Mint Issue
April 18, 1943 ”Japan cannot beat America — therefore Japan should not fight America,” said Admiral Yamamoto, one of Japan’s greatest military minds, before the war. It is hard to believe that those words came from the same man who would later lead the attack on Pearl Harbor and cause destruction throughout the seas of the South Pacific. On April 17, U.S. Naval Intelligence decoded a radio transmission indicating Yamamoto was planning an inspection of his naval bases. He was scheduled to leave Rabaul by plane the following day. Four American P-38 Lightning fighters set out to seek and destroy Yamamoto, flying below radar level. The small enemy squadron of two bombers and six fighters was intercepted and Yamamoto’s bomber was shot out of the sky, exploding into the jungles of Bougainville Island. The Japanese suffered a great loss that day; the Imperial Navy was never able to replace Yamamoto’s strategic leadership.
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