Who was the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet at the start of the war?

Who was the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet at the start of the war? The answer is Isoroku Yamamoto. He became commander-in-chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet in August 1939 and held that position when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Yamamoto was a veteran naval officer and an advocate of naval aviation. He understood that Japan could not win a prolonged industrial war against the United States, but he supported a strategy designed to deliver an early shock and gain time for Japan’s objectives in the Pacific. He planned the Pearl Harbor operation with Admiral Chuichi Nagumo leading the carrier strike force.

Nagumo is therefore a common answer to this question, but he commanded the task force that carried out the attack, not the entire Combined Fleet. Yamamoto remained its commander until his death in April 1943, when U.S. forces intercepted and shot down his aircraft during Operation Vengeance.