BATTLE OF MIDWAY - TURNING POINT OF THE PACIFIC WAR

Just six months after Pearl Harbor, Japan launched another attack on the US Navy. James Holland explains how this time the US was prepared and the resulting clash turned the tide of the war

- NICK SOLDINGER

By 1942, the war appeared to be going well for Japan. Since its attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, it had conquered a series of territories throughout Asia and the Pacific. In quick succession, it had seized Hong Kong and Malaya from the British, overrun large parts of the Dutch East Indies and had chased the Americans out of the Philippines. In doing so, it had plundered many of the resources it would need to continue the expansion of its empire. However, one major obstacle still needed to be overcome.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet, had masterminded the surprise strike against Pearl Harbor but he was well aware that, despite its successes, it had failed to achieve its key objectives. “In the Pacific War, aircraft carriers were to replace battleships as the pre-eminent warship,” says historian and author James Holland. “Even before Pearl Harbor Yamamoto recognised this and, even though he thought the war was a mistake, he figured that if Japan was to have any chance of winning it’d need to knock out the US fleet, in particular its carriers.

“Once it had, it would have sufficient breathing space to grab the territories and resources it needed, leaving America little choice but to come to a peaceful compromise. At least, that had been the plan. But it was very much a case of job half done at Pearl Harbor, because the US carriers were absent. After the attack, with the Americans rearming at a rate the Japanese could never match, Yamamoto knew that a decisive hammer blow still needed to be dealt against the US and it needed to be dealt quickly. For Japan, it was a complete race against time.”