The Battle of Midway, together with the Battle oe the Coral Sea a month earlier, marked a decisive turning point in the World War II Pacieic theater. The Battle of the Coral Sea had halted the Japanese movement southward toward Australia; Midway stopped the Japanese advance eastward in the central Pacific. To this point, the Japanese had controlled the war in the Pacific; after Midway, the first important American victory in the Pacific, the Japanese were on the defensive. As in the Battle of the Coral Sea, surface combat ships never came in contact with each other, and the two engagements thus also demonstrated the new importance of aircraft carriers and air power in naval warfare. The two battles also reflected the importance of code breaking and intelligence in the war.
The Japanese saw Midway as a major strategic site, particularly after the Americans had launched successful bombing raids on Tokyo and Japanese cities from the area in April 1942. They also hoped an attack on the island would draw the U. S. fleet into a decisive defeat. But with the help of “Magic,” the intelligence system for breaking Japanese codes, the United States learned of the Japanese plans for attacking Midway, and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was able to prepare American forces accordingly. Early in the morning of June 4, 1942, planes from Japanese aircraft carriers—part of a huge attack force that included nearly three times as many combat ships as the U. S. Navy could deploy—began the assault on Midway, although they caused only relatively minor damage on the island and experienced significant losses themselves. Planes from the American base on Midway found the Japanese fleet, and waves of planes from the American aircraft carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown then struck the Japanese during rearmament operations, causing massive damage to ships and aircraft. By the end of the battle on June 7, Japan had lost some 300 planes and four of the six aircraft carriers involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States lost approximately 150 planes, but the only major American casualty was the carrier Yorktown, already damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Though luck as well as intelligence information, planning, and skill accounted for the sweeping American victory, the Battle of Midway marked a decisive shift in the Pacific War. The U. S. Navy now had the upper hand, and U. S. forces soon were on the offensive.
Further reading: Gordon Prange, Donald M. Goldstein, and Katherine V. Dillon, Miracle at Midway (New York: Penguin, 1982).
—Charles Marquette
World History
