Casey Tompkins wrote:
On Sun, 8 Jun 2008 20:12:15 -0400, hielan' laddie
wrote:

The shooting down of Yamamoto's aircraft was an assassination..

It was an assassination. They got intel giving the time and route
and mounted an op specifically to kill Yamamoto. That's a textbook
example of an assassination.

...So killling a soldier in a war zone is assassination?

Does that mean that every japanese pilot shot down was assassinated?
You might reply "Well, at least the pilot could fight back," but that
would imply that shooting down any multi-place craft was also
assassination, since only a fighter pilot (or gunner) could shoot
back. Cargo planes didn't have guns, so I suppose by this logic that
they were war crime victims.

When Thomas Lanphier shot down a Zero over Guadalcanal, was he an
assassin? If not, then how can you logically call him one for shooting
down Yamamoto? Both targets were members of the Imperial Japanese
Navy, and were in Navy combat aircraft.

Recall that Admiral Yamamoto was in charge of the war against the
United States at the time. The war was legally declared, and
everything. The Admiral was in a military bomber, in a war zone: in
this case flying from Rabaul to the Solomons.

By this logic, an American or British infantryman who had a chance to
shoot a German general in occupied France would also be an assassin.

The fact that the Admiral was specifically targeted is irrelevant. Do
you claim that (in my example above) Corporal O'Reilly -after randomly
meeting Field Marshal Rommel in Normandy- is not an assassin if he
shoots his opponent? Or is it acceptable to shoot an opponent during a
random encounter, but not go looking for them? Does that mean the
pilot who strafed Rommel (and very nearly killed him) was a war
criminal? Or not?

I recall Bill Mauldin remaking in his book "Up Front" that at least
some NCOs/officers preferred not to wear obvious badges of rank while
in the line, as enemy snipers tended to concentrate on them. Were the
snipers assassins? Or were they military opponents trying to kill or
defeat their enemy?

The bottom line: Admiral Yamamoto was a member of the Imperial armed
forces, was in charge of the war effort against the Allies, was flying
in an armed military aircraft (bomber), from one Japanese military
base to another Japanese military base, both of which were in a war
zone.

This was not an assassination.


It was by definition an assassination. Now move on.