Why Is The Battle Of Midway Essay

The Japanese decided that Pearl Harbor wasn’t enough. They decided that they would destroy the rest of America’s fleet. They decided to draw them in with an attack of Midway island and then demolish them. Japan made a huge mistake! The Battle of Midway paved the way for America and the Allies to move up on the offensive to Tokyo. If not for the Battle of Midway, the Japanese would have plowed through the entirety of World War II.

Without it, no one would ever be successful. The Japanese Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto, had planned the attack on Pearl Harbor and was responsible for planning Operation Midway. He was very influential for the Japanese, as he did think that his strategy of sending separate groups to drag out the Americans in order to leave an opening to attack their base would work. However, his fault was not taking caution to protect his plans from the American code-breakers. After his plan began to fail, all hope was lost for the Japanese.

Moreover, the real nature of the Battle of Midway was poorly understood for some months after the Japanese defeat. On 9 June 1942, The New York Times noted that, “So far as we can now learn, the main damage to the Japanese fleet off Midway was inflicted by our land-based airplanes. The battle shows what land-based air power can do to naval and air power attacking from the open sea when that land-based air power is alert, well-trained, courageous, and exists in sufficient quantity…” But this statement was dead wrong. The Army Air Force B-17s and B-26s did not land a single hit on the Japanese carriers.

The United States’ role in World War II began primarily in the Pacific, between Japan and the West Coast. Here, we were instrumental in the Battle of the Coral Sea, where a Japanese fleet was turned back from attacking Australia. The Battle of Midway Island was another victory for America against the Japanese navy, and marked the turning point of the Pacific naval war.

The Japanese lost twenty nine aircraft, sixty four men, mostly aircrew, and five miniature submarines. Another point of the Japanese strategy was to destroy the Pacific Fleet, which was a Pacific Ocean theater level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval forces to the United States Pacific Command. It carried aircrafts and was able to command from its base. “By 1900 the U.S. Navy had grown from twelfth to third largest in the world... In 1908 it began building a naval base at Pearl Harbor (Heineman 9)”

The Battle of Guadalcanal was a very important battleground that ended the Japanese ground advancement in the Pacific area of operations. Also, after they were defeated and removed from the island it showed that they were not an unstoppable foe that resulted in boasting the confidence of the United States and its allies. The amphibious assault that occurred on Guadalcanal was the first amphibious counteroffensive for the United States after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese were attempting to build an airfield on the island and gain a foothold that would help to protect their flanks as they continued their offensive campaign through the Pacific. Having an established foothold on Guadalcanal would also give the

Despite all the success Japan had early in the war, they did not do as much damage to the United States Pacific fleet as they would have like to have done. This gave America a false sense of security at the time when Japan was preparing to take stronger action. Rear Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s plan was to draw in the remaining American ships into an area where they could be attacked and destroyed by a much greater number of Japanese vessels. Admiral Yamamoto thought that if Japan captured valuable territory like the Midway Islands that the United States could not afford to give up, he could destroy the remaining American ships with ease because the Americans would have no supply chain.

On the Japanese side of intelligence, Yamamoto believed to have the element of surprise at Midway, which was thought to draw the Americans out of Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto had numerical naval superiority in the Pacific to defeat the Americans at sea but remained unaware that the code breakers ascertained its operational and strategic plan to attack at Midway. Spector argues that Japanese submarines knew the American forces were planning something at Pearl Harbor, but the intelligence was never passed on to Yamamoto. Additionally, Yamamoto believed that two of the American carriers were sunk at Coral Sea, which the Yorktown was hastily being repaired in Pearl Harbor. In reality, the Japanese had no idea where the American fleet or carriers were leading up to the Battle of Midway.

More important, however, was Yamamoto's belief that the Americans had been demoralized by their frequent defeats during the preceding six months. Yamamoto felt deception would be required to lure the U.S. fleet into a fatally compromised situation.[16] To this end, he dispersed his forces so that their full extent (particularly his battleships) would be unlikely to be discovered by the Americans prior to battle. However, his

Exodus is the second book of the Bible. Exodus follows after Jacob and his family arrived in Egypt and after Joseph died. After Joseph died the new Egyptian pharaoh began to realize that the Israelite population was on the rise and oppressed them by making them slaves. The story of Exodus follows the oppression of the Israelites, Rise of Moses, The Exodus, and Mount Sinai.

Both of the attacks that occurred on the Pacific and European theater were on areas of land that were very important to the Japanese and Germans. Saipan was one of Japan’s main islands that they specifically did not want the U.S. to capture because they knew that if the United States did, then it would lead to them being able to attack Japan. The U.S. had also planned on turning the island of Saipan into a naval base. D-day was fought in Normandy, France and was significant because it got the Allies onto the continent of

States interference. Midway was the first major naval battle between the United Stated and Japan after Pearl Harbor. It was also one of the most important battles in all of World

Why was the battle of Midway so crucial? On the 4th of June in 1942 started the victorious win of the Americans that was soon to begin World War II! It was quite an amazing battle because the Japanese should have won, but the Americans out smarted them, hacking naval codes, being ready, and being where they needed to be at the right time. The Americans took down the Japanese keeping control of Midway. The battle of Midway between the Americans and the Japanese was the most decisive naval battle in history it was the turning point because it brought the Americans into the forefront of the war that eventually helped defeat Hitler.

suffered a major defeat at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, took advantage of the situation the U.S. was put in after its losses during Pearl Harbor (“Japs Risk Large Naval Units...”). With the backbone of U.S. Pacific Fleet torn out, Japan made several attempts to dominate the Pacific. Japan was anxious to settle their differences with the U.S., so they began risking large naval units in Pacific battles. An article posted in the Los Angeles Time, “Japs Risk Large Naval Units in Blows at U.S.” says, “For the sixth time in six months Japan made a deadly bid to capture the mastery of the Pacific, and for the sixth time she has failed after paying a price that is fast becoming prohibitive,” (“Japs Risk Large Naval Units...”). This article was posted days after the Battle of Midway, on June 7th, 1942 reflecting the actions of the Japanese Navy in the previous months. The Japanese were anxious to pounce on the weakened U.S. after Pearl Harbor, backing their attacks with large naval units. The Japanese felt that they needed to take over Midway Island in order to claim dominance over the U.S. in the Pacific.

Shortly before 8am on Sunday 7 December 1941 , the first of two waves of Japanese aircraft launched a devastating attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet, moored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The raid, which came with no warning and no declaration of war, destroyed four battleships, leaving an additional 4 damaged in merely two hours. The attack destroyed 188 US aircraft, killed more than 2,400 Americans, and injured another 1,200 . Although remembered as “the day that will live in infamy”, the exact reason behind the attack on Pearl Harbor still remains unknown. Some believe that the Japanese were galvanized by Germany to attack the United States because of the assumption that the United States would be unable to concentrate all of its resources toward the fight with Japan. Germany desired assistance in the fight during World War II and, because of that, nearly guaranteed the United States’ defeat if Japan attacked. On the other side, it is believed that the Japanese prompted the Pacific war with the attack on Pearl Harbor in order to eliminate their primary competitor for resources in the Pacific and fulfill its destiny of creating a “greater East Asian co-prosperity sphere” .