Matt Tetu
Mr. Jordan
Period: C
12/18/12
Midway Miracle

America had a daunting task at the Battle of Midway. The public opinion on WWII was not morally high, but they were hopeful. The Japanese had until now, dominated the Pacific Theatre. After Pearl Harbor the U.S moral towards the war should have been diminished. The American people thought to themselves, jeez, we haven’t done anything so far in this war and we need to make a significant statement to show the Japanese and the rest of the world powers that the United States is a super power not to be messed around with. America made their stand at the Battle of Midway. The Battle of Midway was a great moral victory for the United States and changed the opinion of the public during the Pacific Theatre.
The Battle of Midway occurred on June 4-7 1942 on and in the surrounding sea of Midway Island in northeastern Hawaii. The Japanese thought they had the American forces on their heels and in reality, they did. After the blow to Pearl Harbor America hadn’t won a major battle in quite some time. The Japanese thought that they had destroyed American morale. They took the chance to strike again in the early days of June, 1942. Admiral SorokuYamamotol of the Japanese didn’t actually want Midway Island as a base; he wanted to use the battle as bait to draw out the remaining navy in Pearl Harbor so he could eliminate them. Yamamoto thought he could easily take Midway but that was proven to not be so.
Our army’s history has been filled with many extraordinary admirals but the ones who were involved in the Battle of Midway secured a well known spot in their nation’s history. Admiral Raymond Spruance led the American forces in this historic battle. The united states general, in this battle , was going to make a name for himself and later would get the opportunity to lead the successful invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa (WW2facts). After the battle Spurance would be named President of the Naval War College (History.Navy.Facts). On the other side of the sea the Japanese were led by an admiral who at this time was thriving and being praised on his recent success at Pearl Harbor. Soroku Yamamotol led his troops into Hawaii and completely obliterated Pearl Harbor and sent the American moral plummeting, or so he thought. (WW2facts) He was hoping to continue to ride his confidence, or in this case cockiness into Midway.
The difficulty the U.S faced in the battle of midway was great considering the much larger size of the navy of japan. At the battle the U.S troops were heavily out numbered. The U.S strength was considered weak with only 4 carriers, 2 battleships, 15 support ships, 248 carrier based aircraft, and 127 land based air craft (WW2facts). This was going to be perhaps one of the toughest tasks the United States navy will ever have to face. On the so far dominant side of the Japanese were 4 carriers, 2 battleships, 15 support ships, 248 carrier based aircraft, 16 float planes, (the following are the ships the Japanese had at hand but did not use) 2 light carriers, 5 battleships, 41 support ships, 116 other ships (WW2facts). The odds that the United States would come out victorious were not very good. The U.S was going to need to have some tricks up their sleeves if the were going to come out victorious, and so they did.
Many would have thought that because of the lack of success that the United States had been having in recent naval conflicts with the Japanese that the public’s moral would have been demolished. In fact instead of demoralizing the public’s opinion on the war with Japan, it united the country (Air force Magazine). The people of America were showing more nationalism than ever because they knew that if they didn’t motivate their troops and lost this war that it may have been the end of the United States of America as we know it. America was hopeful Midway could have possibly been the last time the American troops could have made a statement against the