Japanese Offensive In The Pacific example essay topic

The Island of Midway is a part of the Hawaiian Islands chain and sits approximately 3000 miles from the West Coast of the United States, 1140 nautical miles from Pearl Harbor, Oahu and 2250 miles from Tokyo, Japan. This small atoll in the Pacific had been a very uninviting place, with no industry, no worthy natural resources and no native inhabitants. Only a few trees and small amounts of vegetation could be found on both small islands that make up Midway. Being in the middle of the Pacific, however, it was an extremely strategic location, for the U.S. Pacific forces and was a very significant location in later defeating the Japanese in a battle after the attack at Pearl Harbor left the United States's navy devastated. Pearl Harbor left Japan possessing superiority over the American Navy and the entire Pacific.

Before the battle at Midway, the Japanese were on the offensive, capturing territory throughout Asia and the Pacific. The battle at Midway on June 4th, 1942 turned the tide for the Pacific war. It was an American victory after the havoc at Pearl Harbor, just months before. The morning of December 7th, 1941, Japanese warplanes, headed by Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Iso roku Yamamoto targeted the U.S. Pacific fleet, stationed at Pearl Harbor, Oahu. The attack was quick and severe. By seven o'clock in the morning, a force of 350 Japanese aircraft was on its way to an unsuspecting Pearl Harbor, their main target being Battleship Row, on the south side of Ford Island.

After attacking Pearl Harbor, the Japanese planned to capture Midway to use as an advance base, also to entrap and destroy what was left from Pearl Harbor, in terms of the U.S. Pacific fleet. Pearl Harbor meant the loss of nearly 400 U.S. aircraft that were stationed on Oahu airfields 1. The attack also destroyed seven of the eight of the giant battleships docked at Ford Island and claimed the lives of 2,343 service men and women 2. Americans suffered a tremendous loss of machinery, artillery and most importantly, a loss of human beings. The Pacific Fleet was instantly crippled.

The Fleet had endured a staggering blow to their forces and was immediately weakened. In addition to attacking ships and aircraft situated at Ford Island, the Japanese planes strafed and bombed navy installations, air corps fields and army bases 3. Just days later, the Japanese declared war on the United States of America. The U.S. Pacific fleet would be paralyzed for at least a year after suffering the strike. This amount of time would give the Japanese the opportunity to continue seizing power over the Pacific, in order to pursue Asian policies eastward. They were on top and on the move.

After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese continued to strike eastern islands and parts of mainland Asia, taking many people prisoner on English, Dutch and American bases. Wake Island was attacked on December 8th, the island of Guam was taken on December 10th, and soon afterward, the island of Midway, which was U.S. territory, on June 4th, 1942. Even though the U.S. Pacific force was still paralyzed from Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle made a critical decision to attempt to stall the Japanese offensive in the East with what was left of the U.S. Navy and Army Air Corps. Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle headed this top-secret mission, called the Doolittle Raid, in April of 1942. The plan was to bomb areas of Tokyo with sixteen Army B-52 bombers.

The attack caused no severe damage, however it shook the Japanese high command. 4 Yamamoto was angry that although he was able to locate and destroy most battleships at Pearl Harbor, he was unable to establish the whereabouts of the U.S. aircraft carriers, which were now at sea. Yamamoto then decided to move in on Midway in an effort to draw out and destroy these carriers located somewhere in the Pacific. These carriers had embarrassed the Japanese with the Doolittle Raid 5. This decision to engage the American carriers brought about the Battle of Midway. Before the U.S. force could rebuild and regain its strength, Yamamoto had to attack.

He expected that Midway would fall quickly and easily. The Japanese intended a swift surprise on Midway. This would eliminate the U.S. force in the Pacific, with Midway being the U.S.'s most advanced base, (base closest to the enemy). A strike would also block the U.S. from interfering with Japan's expanding empire. A victory for the Japanese would perhaps lead to the negotiated peace that was Japan's "exit strategy". The U.S.'s Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, was strategizing Yamamoto's next move.

American intelligence officers, then broke a significant code. The term "AF" in Japanese code translated into "Midway". Nimitz sent three carriers to Midway almost immediately. Yorktown, Hornet and Enterprise each carried 75 to 80 planes 6. Yorktown had just been repaired at Pearl Harbor from being almost destroyed in the attack on December 7th. On the morning of June 4th, the three U.S. carriers, unrevealed to the Japanese, set up an ambush for the approaching Japanese.

They sat lurking northeast of Midway, ready to attack the coming force. The Japanese arrived to a waiting U.S. defense force and began bombing the island and the ships surrounding it. Eventually, the destruction of the largest Japanese carrier, Hi ryu by the U.S. carrier Enterprise, led to Yamamoto's decision to abandon the attack and his force began to retire to the West. The apparent initial defeat America rapidly and amazingly metamorphosized into victory. The shift in power was instantaneous and the Americans quickly regained control over the Pacific. Only four months after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Fleet managed a remarkable victory at Midway.

The victory is significant also to the Japanese who outnumbered the U.S. forces. America's Pacific Fleet was still disabled from Pearl Harbor. As a result, the American force at Midway consisted of only three carriers, eight cruisers, seventeen destroyers, nineteen subs and no battleships. Yamamoto's fleet consisted of eight aircraft carriers, eleven battleships, twenty-four destroyers, twenty subs, many transports and other auxiliaries. 7 The Americans were clearly the weaker force. However, Yamamoto still lost three thousand men, four carriers and three hundred and twenty-two aircraft.

Nimitz lost three hundred and seven men, one hundred and forty-seven aircraft, one carrier and one destroyer. 8 Yamamoto was considered one of the greatest naval leaders of all time. He had been the mastermind behind Pearl Harbor. However, Yamamoto miscalculated and Nimitz out-strategize d him. "To surprise the enemy, it is necessary to know where he is" (Castillo, 26). Also, in relying strictly on surprise, Yamamoto ignored concentration of force.

Yamamoto did not have sufficient information on the whereabouts of the U.S. fleet. Japan's pre-war spy network in Hawaii had been broken up a few days after Pearl Harbor. Nimitz knew more about Yamamoto's plan for Midway then Yamamoto knew about the movements of the U.S. fleet. Going into battle, Yamamoto believed that the U.S. carrier Yorktown was at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. He also believed that most of Nimitz's remaining ships were in the south pacific, because of an earlier attack by the Japanese on the Aleutian Islands. The Japanese thought that Nimitz would send forces towards the islands for protection.

This meant that the Japanese attacked from the Northwest because they thought that Midway's control forces would be sweeping west and southwest. However, Nimitz predicted that the Japanese were charging full steam towards Midway from the northwest, just as they had done before Pearl Harbor. In relying strictly on surprise, Yamamoto ignored concentration of force. During this battle, Yamamoto had set out to do two things: capture Midway and destroy the rest of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

He failed to do either. Nimitz ordered his commanders to prevent the capture of Midway and to do as much damage as possible to the Japanese Combined Fleet without exposing their own forces more than necessary. They succeeded in both tasks 9. Yamamoto had more ships, more men, more planes and guns. As the attacker, he chose the time and place of the battle.

Most of his pilots were more experienced and trained more strictly than American pilots. The Japanese also had brave pilots. Many were Kamikaze soldiers, suicide bombers and fighters. They often risked their lives on purpose to serve their Emperor and country. With all these factors in favour of the Japanese, the U.S. forces still managed to overpower them and win at the battle of Midway. America had intelligence, knowledge of the enemy's movements, strategy, very good tactics and extremely good luck.

America was now on top. The Japanese were defeated. Word of the defeat was top-secret. The Japanese high command refused to admit publicly that Japan could be beaten and lose control of the Pacific war.

Wounded men were taken to secretly located hospitals, unseen even by their families. This secrecy was meant to maintain Japanese civilian morale and to keep the public thinking that the Japanese was growing more and more powerful 10 In a larger, strategic sense, the Japanese offensive in the Pacific was derailed and their plans to advance on New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa were postponed. The balance of sea power in the Pacific shifted to the Americans and turned the tide of the Pacific war. The U.S. and their allies quickly took the offensive and Japan was forced to back down. Midway was the last American outpost left, after the Japanese had captured most U.S. owned islands in the Pacific and the Americans fought to keep the island and to gain control from the developing and expanding Japanese Empire. Midway is not a popular battle known by many people.

However, it was the most significant battle of the Pacific war, fought between the United States and Japan.