That was a misquote by Admiral Yamamoto. He never envisaged that the Empire of Japan could win a long war of attrition with the United States and they would be dictating the terms of surrender in the White House. What he meant was that if Japan did declare war on the United States at Pearl Harbor the Americans would fight until the end and that the only way the war could end in Japan's favor would be in the extremely unlikely scenario that Japan had captured the continental United States and that America had not other choice apart from a dictated surrender as they no longer had the means to continue the war. Therefore I would say that those who believe in this statement are historically ignorant.