Introduction

 

The full extent of the US victory at Midway became evident only gradually. In a message to Stalin, Roosevelt said the battle was indecisive as late as June 6th.  Nimitz and Spruance didn't know that all 4 Japanese carriers were sunk until a seaplane rescued the last of the Hiryu’s surviving sailors on June 19th. However, as we know now, the Battle of Midway was the most overwhelming and decisive naval victory since the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and like Trafalgar, it had massive strategic and tactical consequences.

 

The previous month, Japan had numerous options for strategies to use in continuing the Pacific War. After Midway, there was only one: A defensive perimeter around their conquered islands designed to shed as much American blood as possible in the effort to bring the US to the negotiating table. The Pacific War would continue for three more years, yet the Japanese would never again hold the initiative, forcing them to act perpetually defensive and hold out in the hope that America would grow tired of fighting.

 

      America Takes The Initiative

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The battle had the complete opposite effect on the Americans. While the loss of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown was a heavy blow, the carrier Saratoga would finish being repaired that same day, bringing the US Pacific Fleet back up to three carriers, and it would soon be four, since the Aircraft Carrier Wasp was being transferred from the Atlantic to the Pacific. With four carrier task groups operational, the US Navy had achieved operational superiority over the IJN for the first time since the war began, a prospect that encouraged many of the top American generals and admirals to push for an early offensive against the Japanese. For example, Admiral Ernie King wanted the Pacific offensive to begin on August 1st at the latest, insisting that “it is urgent, in my opinion, that we lose no time in taking the initiative”. MacArthur also saw the decisive victory at Midway as a door to opportunity, stating that “the victory should be exploited at the earliest possible date”. In the end, their desires were answered. Just two months after the Battle of Midway, ten thousand US marines began an amphibious invasion of Guadalcanal in what would become a bloody 14th month campaign of attrition.

 

During those 14 months, U.S. Marines fought their way west from Guadalcanal to places like Rendova, Kolombangara, Yella Lavella, etc. The Japanese fought tooth and nail, but they took too many casualties for some sparsely populated, tropical-disease-ridden jungle outposts. According to the Japanese prewar plan, the defensive perimeter that surrounded the empire’s new conquests was intended to diminish and batter the American fleet as it moved westward, until it could no longer tolerate the number of lives lost, and the Americans would be forced to sue for peace. Yet the longer the campaign lasted, the stronger American forces got. In May of 1943, the first of 24 USS Essex-class aircraft carriers joined the Navy, showcasing just how foolish it was for the Japanese to attack an industrial giant like the USA.

 

      The Industrial And Manpower Divide

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The Japanese never recovered from losing four fleet carriers at Midway, as they lacked the industrial capability to replace them with new ones in the midst of a costly, resource-intensive war. Even more importantly, Japan never recovered from losing so many of its best airplanes and most experienced pilots. Coral Sea, the Solomon's Campaign, and especially Midway claimed the lives and aircraft of hundreds of pilots, something they couldn’t replace. This already major issue became a lot worse as whatever experienced pilots Japan still had as the war went on would often commit kamikaze attacks against American ships, exacerbating an already serious issue. As a result, the Japanese were forced to rely on young and inexperienced pilots to fight a war that was already lost.

 

By the fall of 1943, the United States had built seven new Aircraft Carriers, each equipped with state-of-the-art fighters and bombers, manned by thousands of new pilots who had graduated from American training programs. The Japanese, in comparison, built one new fleet carrier in the same amount of time. In November of that same year, the United States began the famous island-hopping campaign, which led them to islands like the Marshall Islands, the Marianas, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and eventually, the very doorstep of the Japanese home islands. Japanese soldiers fought ferociously, but they were never able to halt the unstoppable American advance. It is clear that the Battle of Midway altered the entire course of the Pacific War and, with it, history as a whole.