Aircraft on the USS Enterprise during the Battle of Midway in June 1942.
World War II was fought across Europe, Asia, Africa, and many spots in between. It was fought on land, in the air, and across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It was fought in large cities and on small islands that most people could not identify on a map. For the over 16 million American veterans who fought in the war, the stakes could not have been higher. The fate of the free world hung in the balance.
While most Americans understand the evil that Nazi Germany represented and why Hitler needed to be defeated, the motivations of Japan are not as well understood. Japan was a country whose military leaders believed in their own superiority and sought to build an empire within Asia, not unlike Nazi Germany in Europe. American Marines, Army, and Navy units had to survive difficult jungle climates that led to illness and disease, as well as an enemy in Japan that was willing to fight to the death.
The war against Japan started with its attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The war ended in August 1945, after two atomic bombs, the worst weapons of war ever created, were used against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The road to this moment took many turns, but it was an early battle at a remote Pacific island called Midway that turned the momentum of the war in favor of the Americans.
Why Japan attacked the United States
Japan is a country with a strong military history. From the late 12th century until the 1870s, the Samurai tradition had the strongest influence over the country. Japan began to change with the Industrial Age of the late 19th century. It built a formidable army and navy compatible with the modern world.
In 1904, Czarist Russia sought to expand its empire into East Asia. Russia believed its territorial ambitions would face little resistance from Japan’s military. However, Russia’s army and navy were humiliatingly defeated in 1905. For the first time, a major European power was defeated by an Asian nation. Japan announced its presence on the world stage.
Japan supported the Allies during World War I but did not send its soldiers to fight. After the war, Japan had little influence over the spoils of victory. Feeling disrespected by the European powers and the United States in negotiations around the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations, Japan went its own direction, isolating itself from international diplomacy. Its military leaders began to gain more influence over the country, and their ambitions were to build a Japanese empire.
On December 25, 1926, Michinomiya Hirohito succeeded his father as the emperor of Japan. Emperor Hirohito’s role in Japan’s expansionism is still debated. Some believe he was more of a figurehead, while others believe he actively ordered the attacks on Japan’s weaker neighbors. Whatever his intentions, he largely watched as his country became increasingly militarized and aggressive. Hirohito was considered a near deity within Japanese culture, which put him in a position to change Japan’s course. He did not.
Japan attacked the Chinese province of Manchuria in September 1931, ten years before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan is an island, so its natural resources to create the empire it sought to build were limited without expanding into other territories. Specifically, Japan needed oil and rubber, which were in short supply on the Japanese home islands. It initially sought these resources in China.
As Japan was attacking China, military leaders within Japan began to consolidate their power and assassinate public officials. This culminated with the assassination of Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi in 1932.
The brutality of Imperial Japan, specifically against the Chinese, is often understated in history. Lost in the long shadow cast by Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, Japan committed atrocities in China and elsewhere that are not as widely known. In December 1937, Japanese forces attacked the city of Nanking and executed as many as 300,000 soldiers and citizens. In addition to the killings, Japanese soldiers raped between 20,000 and 80,000 Chinese women and girls in what was called the Rape of Nanking.
Japan established a “research” facility known as Unit 731, which committed unspeakable acts against Chinese nationals to develop military weapons, including deadly biological and chemical agents. Like the Germans, the Japanese considered themselves racially superior, so human life meant nothing as long as it wasn’t Japanese life. Prisoners of war and civilians were subjected to brutality that was equal to the atrocities of Nazi Germany at a secret facility in Manchuria.
The treatment of prisoners at Unit 731 defies description. Prisoners were purposely infected with all sorts of deadly pathogens, including anthrax and the bubonic plague. They were subjected to surgeries without anesthesia, freezing experiments, and all kinds of torture. The Japanese brought humanity to its absolute worst at Unit 731. Between 200,000 and 300,000 mostly Chinese prisoners were murdered there, most in inhumane ways.
By the end of World War II in 1945, an estimated 14 million Chinese were killed, mostly civilians. Some believe the number to be closer to 20 million in China alone. As many as 30 million people were killed by the Japanese in total. The same word that describes Nazi Germany must be applied to Imperial Japan: Evil.
Japan pressed forward in building its empire. However, as Japan continued its attack on China and threatened other countries in the region, the United States took notice and began a series of economic sanctions against Japan.
By the end of 1937, Japan had captured Manchuria and turned its attention to the whole of China. This proved difficult as Chinese leaders consolidated different factions to repel the Japanese. In response to Japanese aggression, the United States extended a loan to China in 1938. In 1939, the United States terminated the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, signed with Japan in 1911. By 1940, the United States began restricting exports to Japan of materials considered useful for war.
Japan made another decision in September 1940 that had serious consequences. By this time, Hitler and Nazi Germany had invaded Poland and conquered France. The Battle of Britain was being waged. The Nazis threatened the entire world. Believing Germany and Italy were friendly towards them, unlike the United States and other Western countries, and sharing an anti-democratic ideology, Japan joined the Axis Powers and signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy on September 27, 1940 (the term “axis” comes from speeches given by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini). The United States was not in the war at the time, but was actively implementing “lend-lease” to deliver war materials to Britain to fight the Nazis. Japan’s joining the Axis only further complicated relations between the United States and Japan.
By July 1941, Japan had occupied French Indochina (modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) to prevent arms from being delivered to the Chinese through that region. The United States responded by severing all commercial and financial relations with Japan and freezing Japanese assets in the United States. The Japanese received most of their oil from the United States, meaning they would have to get it some other way if they were to continue their war effort.
The Japanese government faced a decision. They could stop their aggression and have economic sanctions lifted against them, they could push north into the Soviet Union to gain the oil they needed, or they could move south and attack their southern neighbors, specifically the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). The Japanese were committed to getting the oil they needed by force. Led by their navy, Japan decided to move south and conquer land rich in natural resources, specifically oil. This put them into direct confrontation with the United States-controlled Philippines and British-controlled Hong Kong, Malaya (modern-day Malaysia), and Singapore.
Britain was fighting for its survival in Europe against the Nazis and could offer only limited resources to defend its colonies in Asia. However, the United States remained a roadblock for Japan’s ambitions. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in July 1941, Japan did not have to fear a Soviet attack, freeing it to look towards the Pacific.
Japan initially sought a diplomatic solution with the United States while also preparing for war. In negotiations, the United States was willing to accept a Japanese withdrawal from China that did not include Manchuria; however, the Japanese were unwilling to do so.
From the Japanese perspective, they claimed they wanted to free Asia of Western colonial influence and establish what they called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. While it was true that the Japanese wanted to remove the United States, Great Britain, and other European countries from Asia, they sought to dominate the continent themselves, and they were more than willing to use brutality to do so.
While negotiations continued with the United States, Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo decided that a military confrontation was inevitable. To win a war, the Japanese believed they needed to strike the United States Navy decisively, so that the U.S. would take perhaps a year to recover. In that time, Japan could consolidate its hold on Southeast Asia, build up its military with the resources it gained, and eventually force the United States into an agreement to let Japan keep its newly conquered territory.
U.S. officials thought a Japanese attack was possible, but that it was likely to occur in the U.S.-controlled Philippines or Guam if it were to take place. The Japanese plan was far more ambitious. Planned and led by Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, six aircraft carriers and many support vessels set sail for Hawaii. Their target was the United States Pacific Fleet headquartered at Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor. In the aftermath of the attack, the U.S. Congress declared war against Japan the next day, December 8. After Nazi Germany declared war against the U.S., the U.S. Congress reciprocated with their own war declaration against both Germany and Italy on December 11, 1941. The entire country mobilized for war in Europe and against Japan in the Pacific.
2,403 Americans were killed at Pearl Harbor, with another 1,178 wounded. As terrible a day as it was for the loss of life and the destruction of property, the day could have been far worse. Oil storage depots, repair shops, a shipyard, and submarine docks remained intact. Two serviceable aircraft carriers, the USS Lexington and USS Enterprise, were stationed at Pearl Harbor. Because of the threat of war, both were out to sea the morning of December 7 and were not attacked. The USS Saratoga was undergoing refitting away from Pearl Harbor in 1941 and would not return to Pearl Harbor until mid-December 1941. The USS Yorktown was in the Atlantic on December 7, as the threat of war with Germany was high. The Yorktown was transferred to the Pacific shortly after Pearl Harbor. Preserving these carriers allowed the U.S. to respond to the Japanese attack far more quickly than the Japanese had anticipated.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was only a part of a larger plan to attack and occupy other areas of Asia and the Pacific. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese also attacked the U.S. territories of Guam and the Philippines, the British territories of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaya, and the independent nation of Thailand. Shortly thereafter, they invaded the Dutch East Indies.
As shocking as the attack against Pearl Harbor was, the Japanese plan to set the United States Navy and military back months or even years failed. The massive resources of the United States were mobilized for war. The war’s course in the Pacific shifted after a pivotal battle at the tiny island of Midway.
America Strikes Back at Midway
Japanese expansionism reached its peak before the Battle of Midway in June 1942.
As the calendar turned to June 1942, the world was aflame. Germany and the Soviet Union were at war, which would not be resolved until the Soviet army entered Berlin in April 1945. The Germans were fighting the British for control of North Africa.
The United States had decided on a Europe-first strategy in its two-theater war. However, Japan continued on the offensive in the Pacific and the Americans were forced to act.
In April, two months before the Battle of Midway, an important event occurred in the Pacific War. U.S. Commander James Doolittle launched B-17 bombers from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier and successfully dropped bombs on Tokyo, Japan’s capital. This rattled the Japanese, who believed such an event was not possible. In response, the Japanese sought to extend their defensive perimeter in the Central Pacific.
The Pacific Ocean is more than 63 million square miles. About 2,000 miles from any continent lies the Midway Atoll, the approximate midpoint of the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. had a military base there on Midway Island from which it could launch aircraft. Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, the same man who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, proposed to try to capture Midway Island, believing this would draw out the American aircraft carriers to be destroyed by a superior Japanese force. The aim of the attack was similar to Pearl Harbor. The Japanese sought to set back the American Navy at least a year while providing a location closer to the mainland United States from which the Japanese could monitor American naval movements.
Unlike at Pearl Harbor, American intelligence was able to learn about the attack before it took place. The Japanese gave orders for the attack on Midway through a code. The Americans had a code-breaking unit known as Station Hypo that was led by Lieutenant Commander Joseph Rochefort. Pacific Fleet staff intelligence officer Lieutenant Commander Edwin T. Layton led the effort to break the Japanese code. His unit was able to decipher enough of the Japanese code to learn that they were targeting Midway. The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, took measures to prepare the American Navy for the coming attack.
The U.S. carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown deployed to Midway with 234 aircraft in tow. Another 110 fighters, bombers, and patrol planes were stationed on Midway Island; however, many were older planes unfit for service. The Japanese noticed the movement of the Enterprise and Hornet out of Pearl Harbor. Because Yamamoto insisted on strict radio silence, this information was not relayed to him. This began a series of events that favored the Americans throughout the battle. The Japanese believed the Yorktown was destroyed at the Battle of the Coral Sea just a month earlier. In actuality, the Yorktown was repaired and sent back out to sea in just a few days without the knowledge of the Japanese military.
On the morning of June 4, 1942, the U.S. was on the lookout for the Japanese fleet, which consisted of four aircraft carriers and 229 planes, as well as many other support vessels and submarines. The three American carriers were positioned northwest of Midway Island. Half of the Japanese planes attacked American planes on Midway Island, while the other half was held in reserve for attacks on American ships and carriers. After the initial Japanese attack, Japanese pilots reported back to Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the officer in charge of the four Japanese carriers, that more targets remained on the island. It was here that an important decision was made. Nagumo ordered his planes to be rearmed with bombs suited for attacks against land-based targets, rather than with torpedoes meant for ships.
However, this order was given without knowing American carriers were in the area. Shortly after this order was given, a Japanese scout plane reported back to Nagumo that American ships had been discovered. Wanting to attack the American ships with a full complement of planes, Nagumo halted his previous order and ordered the Japanese planes to be rearmed again with torpedoes. The result of this was that there was a degree of chaos on all four of the Japanese carriers, as bombs and other ordnance were scattered all over their flight decks as crews rushed to change the bombs on the planes. This made these carriers virtual tinderboxes.
Planes from the three American aircraft carriers were on the lookout for the Japanese fleet. At this early stage of the war, the Americans had not perfected coordinating their movements among different commands, resulting in planes from the three carriers departing separately without notifying the others of their locations. U.S. torpedo bombers from Midway Island located the Japanese fleet and attacked. Japanese pilots flying Zero fighters shot down most of these planes, and no torpedoes reached their targets.
As had happened many different times in American history during important battles, fortune was with the Americans on June 4. Dive bombers from the USS Enterprise were able to follow a lone Japanese destroyer that was heading back to reunite with the rest of the Japanese fleet. Planes from the USS Yorktown found the Japanese fleet almost simultaneously, an unplanned occurrence. The American dive bombers were at an altitude much higher than the Japanese Zero fighters could intercept them. The result was that the Americans were able to destroy three of the four Japanese carriers in about a five-minute span. Historian John Keegan called this “the fatal five minutes” that delivered “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare.” For the rest of the war, Japan was mainly on the defensive and never again the threat they were before the battle.
Lt. Cdr. Richard Halsey Best
The battle was not over. Planes from the remaining Japanese carrier attacked the Yorktown, and despite the best efforts of Yorktown’s fighter pilots, the Yorktown was hit. A Japanese submarine later landed two torpedoes on the Yorktown and the order was given to abandon ship. The Yorktown sank. However, planes from the Enterprise located the remaining Japanese carrier and sank it. An Enterprise dive bomber pilot named Richard Halsey Best landed bombs that sank two Japanese carriers at Midway. The bravery of the pilots and men that day was remarkable. The result of the battle was that four Japanese aircraft carriers, all of which participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, were sunk. These were losses the Japanese could not afford.
After hearing about the loss of his carriers, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto ordered his remaining ships to abandon Midway and return to Japan. The Battle of Midway killed 3,057 Japanese troops and 362 U.S. seamen. It is one of the greatest battles in American history and is a testament to the Navy and the great Americans who fought there. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning. Years of ferocious fighting lay ahead.
Please Read:
Fighting Imperial Japan: The Flags of Iwo Jima
Fighting Imperial Japan: The Manhattan Project Ends World War II