On 4 June 1942 American carrier-based naval aircraft destroyed four of the six aircraft carriers that Japan had used on the surprise aerial attack on the naval station in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Each side demonstrated positive use of the principles of war; however both were guilty of serious breaches in the principles and in duties of command. Through unity of command and superior command decisions by the American naval leaders, the United States scored a resounding victory that has been coined as the turning point of the Pacific Theater in the Second World War. In contrast, the Japanese naval leaders failed to exhibit the same mature and sound decisions prior to and during the battle as did their American counterparts, breaching the principles …show more content…
of objective, simplicity, mass and maneuver.
The execution of the principles of surprise and economy of force, made by the Americans in the Battle of Midway created an emphatic American victory when the preponderance of Japanese naval and air power indicated that events should have gone otherwise. The Japanese opened their pre-invasion attack on Midway on the early morning of June 4 with the launch of 108 combat aircraft from the four carriers of their main striking force. The Japanese aircraft carriers: the Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu were under direct command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo during the battle. Admiral Nagumo had only planned to have a single strike on Midway enough to just soften the defenses of Midway to ensure a successful landing by ground invasion forces. However, Admiral Nagumo was not convinced it was ready for an invasion and that he may be jeopardizing the capture of Midway if he does not send a second strike. Having no confirmed …show more content…
information about any American carriers in the area he made the decision to rearm his planes for another wave on Midway. While being serviced, the waiting American force was detected and Admiral Nagumo then decided to change the arms loaded on the planes on the decks of the carriers from high explosive bombs to torpedoes against the American ships. With torpedoes and bombs stacked, and fuel hoses snaking across their flight decks, the Japanese carriers made vulnerable and highly volatile targets. Rear Admiral Spruance launched an attack from the carriers USS Enterprise and USS Hornet against the Japanese carriers. Anti-aircraft fire and fighters shot down 35 of 41 torpedo bombers, but this action brought the Japanese fight aircraft down so low that the American dive-bombers could attack almost without opposition. Five minutes later, three Japanese carriers, the Akagi, Kaga and Soryu, were ablaze, abandoned, or crippled. Aircraft launched from the remaining Japanese carrier Hiryu struck the USS Yorktown, which was severely damaged, but survived. Japan allowed more than one objective to influence her offensive actions in the Battle of Midway.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto believed that the American Navy would have to defend Midway in the event of attack thus seeing an opportunity to accomplish two major objectives with one major offensive. Admiral Yamamoto and his staff developed a plan to hit Midway by surprise, occupy the island, and then annihilate the American Pacific Fleet when it rushed out of Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese naval fleet planned the capture of Midway but at the same time recognized the destruction of the Pacific Fleet as the primary purpose of the operation, the Japanese commander split his objectives and burdened his subordinates with the responsibility of determining which objective had the higher priority at any given moment. The Japanese plan for the attack of Midway was flawed from its conception, primarily due to its complexity. It included: a diversionary attack in the Aleutians, an aircraft carrier striking force whose planes would bomb Midway, a fleet of battleships to conduct a ship to shore bombardment of the island, and an invasion force of five thousand men to seize and hold Midway. On the other hand, the American commander–Admiral Chester Nimitz–had but one objective: defending midway by turning back the Japanese Combined Fleet from
Midway. The Japanese made the mistake of allowing the mere number of naval forces on the table mislead them in their planning. The quantity of ships does not alone translate to produce mass. What is essential is bringing together the proper balance of forces at just the right moment. There is no question that when Admiral Yamamoto burdened his naval forces with the plan to support the landing operation on Midway by his mobile force, in addition to attacking any American naval force that may appear, that the maneuverability of his force would be severely limited. This in itself does not constitute a violation of the principle of maneuver, the fact that the Japanese restricted their forces to a fixed timetable that did not allow freedom of action was their breach of this principle of war. The Japanese violated the principle of mass by separating their naval forces particularly, their main body and their guard force. The main body and guard force was theoretically able to maneuver in response to any enemy threat or situation, however since the guard force was positioned so far to the rear of the main body that any kind of maneuvering of force would be mitigated and lost with the passage of time. The cornerstone of the Japanese planned relied heavily on moving eastward to surprise the American forces at Midway, however the exact opposite happened. As the events turned out, it was the Japanese who were surprised in almost every aspect of the battle. The Japanese were surprised when they discovered Midway with just a few planes on the ground and even more so when their search planes discovered an American carrier force where it was least expected, when they there the most vulnerable. Admiral Yamamoto merely estimated the probable actions of the American fleet on Midway, while completely disregarding what the Americans were realistically capable of doing to change their position on the war. Yamamoto’s plan ultimately hinged on the American forces following exactly what the Japanese expected. American intelligence, prior to the battle, played a tremendous part in keeping American forces from being surprised. The Japan’s fate was ultimately sealed when the Americans broke the JN-25 naval code this allowed Nimitz to learn of Yamamoto's plans with sufficient time to prepare for the Japanese offensive. The Japanese, although lacking radar, could have taken additional steps to keep from being surprised. The major failure in Japan’s efforts to avoid being surprised is its failure to institute a two phase search for the American Naval Force. In comparing the Japanese force to the American force, the Japanese came with nearly every ship in its navy while the Americans brought less than a quarter as many. While the odds may have been better four to one in favor of the Japanese, the real translated offensive power of the Japanese fleet was far less than the Americans. With the all the power at Admiral Yamamoto’s command, he did not fully utilize the forces he had available. He allowed much of it to be positioned in locations where it was incapable of rendering any effective support of the objectives of the battle. Admiral Nimitz used everything at hand that would accomplish mission success, making the greatest use of the limited forces under his operational command and only having to respond by sending a token force to the Japanese attack on the Aleutians because of political necessity. He rejected the idea of employing battleships for Midway, dispatched his older warships to the Aleutians and moved his available air, surface and underwater assets toward the threatened island. The stage was set for Yamamoto’s defeat and Nimitz’s victory in The Battle of Midway even before its execution phase. Admiral Yamamoto did not apply the sound principles of war, operational and basic leadership which would have developed a a much more realistic plan that was flexible enough to adapt to change. Once Yamamoto’s force was out at sea, there was little hope to change direction in a coordinated effort since Yamamoto put his ships in a position where he was not able to communicate information, control events and oversee the battle as it unfolded. As a result of his failure, his subordinates commanders made seriously flawed decisions which led to their ultimate defeat. The American victory at Midway was a remarkable testimony to the bravery, self-sacrifice, foresight and technical expertise of the United States Navy. While the performance of the battle by the Americans was not flawless, those errors were far fewer and less profound by a great margin than those of the Japanese. For the Japanese, the sinking of the four fleet carriers, the loss of nearly 300 planes and enormous loss of skilled airmen would be felt throughout the remainder of the war. The principles of war have an important role in every battle, whatever principles were observed or ignored invariably reflected on the performance and outcome of the battle. In Midway, the principles of war are what dictated the outcome of the battle.
In May of 1942, Japanese Admiral Isorosku Yamamoto devised a plan to draw the US Pacific fleet into battle where he could completely destroy it. To accomplish this master plan of his, he sought out the invasion of Midway Island which would provide a base for the Japan troops to attack Hawaii. Unfortunately for Yamamoto, America decrypted Japanese radio transmissions and Admiral Chester Nimitz was able to establish a counter attack against this offensive. Nimitz sent three aircraft carriers, The USS Enterprise, The USS Hornet and The USS Yorktown to destroy the Japanese. This is just a short overview of The Battle of Midway, or as commonly referred to as, the battle that changed the war. People argue that it had no affect on the war, but those critics couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the war because it fully enters America into the war, it kicked off the Pacific Campaign, and it had Japan on the defensive, thus preventing them from helping The Axis Forces.
To begin, the attack on Pearl Harbour was devastating to U.S. naval capabilities in the Pacific at the onset of their entry into the war. Japanese officials had grown tired of the U.S. oil embargo, which was meant to limit their territorial expansion and aggression in South-East Asia as well as China, and as negotiations weren’t reaching any conclusions they decided that the only course of action was a first strike on the aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbour to cripple U.S. naval capability in the Pacific (Rosenberg 1). The attack, which lasted about two hours, had resulted in the sinking of four battleships, among ...
Previous to the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7th 1941, tensions had been forming between the USA and Japan in the pacific. The US had cut of most supplies to Japan with the fear of Japanese expansion. The conflict that had been escalating between Japan and China since 1937 had the US treating Japan with great cautiousness. They had been monitoring Japanese Americans in anticipation of a surprise attack. However the attack on Pearl Harbour still shocked and outraged the American nation and affected the American psyche. After being assured that “a Japanese attack on Hawaii is regarded as the most unlikely thing in the world”(1), the sudden mass destruction of the U.S Navy’s Pacific fleet and deaths of roughly 2400 U.S soldiers and civilians as a result of such an attack undoubtedly lead to confusion and racial hatred amongst many US citizens. The assumption on the War Department’s behalf that Japan’s Navy were incapable of launching a full scale assault on the US Navy’s chief Pacific base was more than inaccurate. As a result, the US Naval base was unprepared and was quickly taken out. A hidden bias would soon become evident in both average civilians and higher positioned government officials. This bias against Japan aided in the formation of the Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) on February 19th 1942.
The Battle of Pearl Harbor was one of the most atrocious events that happened in U.S. history. On December 7, 1941, Japan made a surprise aerial attack on the United States naval base and airfields at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than two thousand Americans died and a thousand two hundred were wounded. Eighteen ships were badly damaged, including five battleships. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt with the support of the Congress, declared war on Japan. It led United States’ official involvement in World War II. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because of a deteriorating relationship with the U. S. The “New World Order”, expansion and resources, and economic sanctions were factors that conducted to another disaster on the Second World War.
This paper will compare Gordon W. Prange's book "At Dawn We Slept - The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor" with the film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" directed by Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, and Toshio Masuda. While the film provides little background to the attack, its focal point is on the Pearl Harbor assault and the inquiry of why it was not prevented, or at least foreseen in adequate time to decrease damage. Prange's book examines the assault on Pearl Harbor from both the Japanese and American viewpoints to gain a global view of the situation and the vast provision undertaken by Japanese intelligence. The film and book present the Japanese side, the American side, the events that lead up to the attack, and the aftermath.
The motive for Japan’s plan to attack Midway Island was to claim dominant power over the Pacific Ocean and to...
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was one of the most atrocious attacks to have ever happened on American soil, starting with disagreement on the Potsdam declaration. Japan’s greed for more land and industrial materials led the Japanese to make a plan to keep the United States out of the war, which consisted the use of kamikaze pilots and bombs to destroy our aircraft carriers and boats in an attempt to control the Pacific. While leaving the drowning, and dead bodies of thousands of American seamen and battleships at the bottom of the sea, seemed to be a good idea to the Japanese; America joined World War II and introduced the first nuclear weapons as reprisal for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Had the Japanese agreed to an unconditional surrender and end to militarism during the agreement on the Potsdam declaration, the introduction to nuclear weapons and the death count wouldn’t have been so high and devastating on both the American and Japanese sides.
On June 4th, a legendary battle took pace over the pacific sea. The battle of midway was the turning for America in World War 2. The air attacks of Japan and America would continue for many days. America won the battle and took out half of Japans carriers. It battle was a great victory for America, considering the fact that japan had much greater forces. This battle was the start of America taking control of the war over the pacific. This battle took place six months after japans first strike a Pearl Harbor. Many histories say this was the greatest air battle of all time. America not only proved that numbers didn’t matter, but showed that only leaders with clear eyes and soldiers with heart can win a battle of any size.
The battle of Midway took place 4-7 June 1942. The US Navy and Imperial Navy of Japan fought near the Central Pacific island of Midway. The battle of Midway was a battle that occurred during WW II Pacific Theater of operations. There were two events that led up to this battle. The first major event was the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which took place six months prior to the battle of Midway ( 7 December 1941). The second event was the Battle of the Coral Sea. The Battle of the Coral Sea took place a month prior and it gave the Japanese Commanders courage to set a new objective. The Battle of the Coral Sea was a key factor that led up to the battle of Midway. The battle of the Coral Sea was Japans attempt to strengthen their defensive positioning
On December 7th 1941, Japanese Planes and submarines attacked the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor. This event singlehandedly brought the U.S from its then neutral stance in World War Two to a fighting member of the “Allied Powers.” Pearl Harbor was the first of a long series of confrontations between the U.S and the Japanese in an effort to gain control of the Pacific. Unlike the “War in Europe” the Pacific strategy was dominated by naval and aerial battles, with the occasional land-based “Island Hopping” Campaign. As such, one of the most important factors in the war in the pacific was Fleet Size, the more ships a country could send to war, the better. Pearl Harbor was the Japanese’s way of trying to deal with the massive U.S Pacific fleet. However, Pearl Harbor was not the turning point of the war. After December 7th the United States began work on numerous technological developments which would ultimately help them in one of the most important battles of WWII, the largest naval confrontation of the war, The Battle of Midway. The battle, which took place from June 4th to June 7th , 1942 is widely considered the turning point of the Pacific Theater (James & Wells). Through the Post-Pearl Harbor desire for “Revenge” and various technological advantages including code breaking and radar, the U.S were able to outsmart the Japanese at Midway and ultimately win the battle, eventually leading to a victory in the Pacific.
“The Japanese force that had dominated the Pacific for six months was in ruins, extinguishing the hopes of an empire. Midway was that rarest of engagements - a truly decisive battle” (BBC History). Midway, to the Japanese, was a stab back at America after the Doolittle Raids of Tokyo. The Doolittle Raids wer...
It’s a beautiful sunny morning, on a tropical island that everyone would love to take a vacation at. It’s approximately 6:00 am, December 7, 1941, when a first group of 181 kamikaze planes attacked; targeting key naval bases stationed at Hawaii; a sustained crippling of U.S. naval forces for about 6 months. The death toll was 2,500. Out of the 9 battleships, 8 were heavily damaged by the assault on Pearl Harbor and out of the 8, three were unrepairable, USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, and the USS Utah. 160 aircrafts were put out of commission, and nearly 130 were heavily damaged. This was the first incident in which there was an act of war, committed on U.S. soil, outside of the American Revolution and the Civil War. The world was at war, and the U.S. remained neutral until now. Before the attack, the U.S. was in great debate whether to enter the war or to stay out of it. The act of war forced the U.S. into the War and triggered a controversial debate in whether to retaliate against Japan with the use of nuclear arms.
Japan’s goal during the Battle of Midway was to destroy the American aircraft carriers and take over the islands of midway, which would then led to their capture of Pearl Harbor. Confident in their advantage in numbers, Japan wanted to finish off the American fleet at Midway (Lambert). On the night before the battle, U.S. forces decoded...
It was a Sunday morning, on December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor, US naval base located on Hawaii, was attacked by the Japanese. They caught unguarded the whole nation, and for that, this attack is considered one of the top ten failures of the US intelligence. The Japanese were able to attack Pearl Harbor by surprise because of the mindset of US officials, whom they saw Japanese as a weak enemy, who wouldn’t risk attacking US territory, caused by a supremacy factor; As well as the not good enough US intelligence efficiency to encrypt Japanese codes, and the handling of such information. After the negotiations between the Japanese and the United States ended, there was no doubt that they would make an attack, but they didn’t know the target of it.
With the outcome of the Battle of Pearl Harbor not accomplishing Japans ideals and retaliation was for certain. The island of Midway started preparing for a battle, “After the somewhat shaking events of 7 December, Midway, no less than Pearl Harbor, prepared for the worst with full anticipation that it would come” (Heinl, 16). Within two weeks new shipments of aircrafts and US troops to the island had arrived to stockpile resources. The United States was preparing to defend their fleet and resources involved. The attack on Pearl Harbor opened up the idea to American that the war had already started whether people kne...