Essay about The Turning Point of World War II - The Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway dealt a devastating catastrophe for the Japanese naval and air capabilities with destroying four carriers, one heavy cruiser, 248 aircraft, and 3,057 personnel. The Americans lost one aircraft carrier, one destroyer, 150 aircraft, and 307 personnel. Historically, Midway has been considered the turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II. Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses, while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas that inevitably led denying Japan the ability to achieve its limited policy objective: to destroy the American carrier force in the Pacific and use the Aleutians and Midway Island as stepping stones for a Japanese

In 1940, the United States was extremely against this animosity and reacted with trade embargoes and monetary approvals. FDR had talked with the Dutch and the British to see if they would agree upon embargoes on Japan. Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not want a conflict in the pacific as the United States was not prepared for war. For instance, the oil embargo that was organized between the British, the Dutch, and the United States was about 90% of Japan’s imported oil. [3] This upset Japan because without oil or fuel their military and war efforts would come to a complete stop.

The United State’s direct involvement in World War II officially began as soon as the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Prior to that event, America had been providing arms and equipment to England but stopped short of any direct military confrontation with the Axis. The War in the Pacific was considered Asia’s War and the European War was considered a local conflict. US-Japanese relations had become strained in 1941, though America felt secure that her naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was powerful enough to discourage any aggression from Japan. On July 24, 1941, Japan occupied French Indo-China (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos). Two days after that, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the United States. American trade

The Japanese planned to take out the coasts and island that the American Navy had. The Japanese Navy would try a mainland invasion of the United States if they could take the Midway Island. First they would probably take Hawaii then they would take the Panama Canal and then after that the Japanese would invade San Fransisco Bay then there would be a negotiation between the United States and Japan would gain all the land gained by the Japanese during the Pacific Campaign.

To impose imperialistic goals and enhance nationalistic beliefs, the Japanese needed to significantly hinder the growth of the US economy, specifically, so that they could not enter into a Pacific war. Admiral Isoruko Yamamoto made it clear that they could not completely knock out America, because of their large economy. However, they believed that by attacking America’s main naval base, Pearl Harbour, they could prevent America’s entry into a Pacific war for 2 years. Therefore, this time would give the Japanese the opportunity to expand and occupy South East Asia without American intervention. The signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which allied Japan with Germany and Italy, provoked tension between the United States and Japan joined the Axis Powers. Negotiations in Washington were useless because of the almost diametrically opposite aims of the parties. Japan wanted America to abandon all support of the Chinese government and in return Japan would consider withdrawing from the Axis Pact. America distrusted the Japanese and wanted them to withdraw from Indochina and China. The Japanese were beginning to resent negotiations and believed that by the time America had recovered Japan would have acquired enough land and power that the US would accept a peace offer to avoid costly confrontation because by this time the navy would have established a defense perimeter of

On June 3rd, 1942, the United States declared war on Imperialistic Japan and Nazi Germany. Due to the bombing of the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese the U.S. was forced to take action. The United States began their first naval battle near the Midway islands in defense of its pacific fleet and positioning. Midway was the Japanese' last goal for its western expansion in the Pacific.

By the end of 1941 Japan had control of most of the Pacific theater. It was not until after the attack on Pearl Harbor that the United States formally declared war on the Axis Powers. By the beginning of 1942, the United States Navy, switched from being in a defensive position to an offensive position and took the fight to the Japanese military in the Pacific. The Battle of Midway is considered the turning point in the Pacific Theater during WWII. However, the Battle of Midway may not have happened as it did if it were not for the men who tirelessly worked to break the Japanese JN-25 code. The ability to decipher the encrypted Japanese messages gave the United States Navy the upper hand in the Pacific theater and by the end of the war the Japanese

Japan and the United States had different kinds of relations that could have lead Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor.The United States military and Japan’s relationship seemed to get worse after Japan sank the USS Panay even though Japan apologized for sinking the ship. Japan became aware in the 19th and 20th century that there was threats from different nations influence became very loyal. During 1939 - 1945 the United States, for the second time, applied domestic penalties to Japan and sends to Europe military supplies because Germany, Italy, and Japan made the Anti Comintern Pact. Japan wanted to take control over some land in northeastern China, this lead to domestic penalties that were charged against Japan from the United States and Europe. Even though the United States saw Japan as a minor threat because Japan had a little military compared to the United States navy. Japan decided

Despite all the success Japan had early in the war, they did not do as much damage to the United States Pacific fleet as they would have like to have done. This gave America a false sense of security at the time when Japan was preparing to take stronger action. Rear Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s plan was to draw in the remaining American ships into an area where they could be attacked and destroyed by a much greater number of Japanese vessels. Admiral Yamamoto thought that if Japan captured valuable territory like the Midway Islands that the United States could not afford to give up, he could destroy the remaining American ships with ease because the Americans would have no supply chain.

………Japan plan a attack that was the turning point in the war, just not in the way they expected. The battle of midway was supostto take out Americas already weekend nave. In the end it failed they tried a sneak attack which back fired on them losing more than they gained. The battle of midway was japans down fall.

The United States placed restrictions on what could not be exported to Japan after Japan's take over of northern French Indochina. The United States tried to prevent a war from Japan by forbidding the exporation of steel, scrap iron, and aviation fuel. The United States used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima to end the war they entered when Japan, without warning, bombed Pearl Harbor. The United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima because it would end the war by Japanese surrender sooner, it would prevent the United States from asking the Soviet union to help, and ending the war would potentially save American lives.

"Midway thrust the warlords back on their heels, caused their ambitious plans..........to be canceled, and forced on them an unexpected, unwelcome, defensive role". -Samuel Elliot Morison, the United States Navy's official historian of World War II, on the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The danger of Japanese power in the Pacific lingered over the heads of the Americans and endangered the safety of their homeland in the years from 1903 to 1942. That power lasted until the Japanese made the mistake of attacking the island of Midway in the second great carrier battle of the war. At 4:30 in the morning on June 4, 1942, the Japanese attacked the U.S. naval base at Midway in an attempt to destroy their aircraft carriers that escaped Pearl

Japan’s wanted to attack Midway to gain power in the Pacific Ocean and to eliminate the United States Navy for a long time. Since the U.S. suffered a major defeat at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, felt he could take advantage of the U.S. since they were weak in his mind (Hone). Japan was fixated on settling their differences with the U.S., so they began risking large naval units in Pacific battles. An article posted in the Los Angeles Time, “Japs Risk Large Naval Units in Blows at U.S.” says, “For the sixth time in six months Japan made a deadly bid to capture the mastery of the Pacific, and for the sixth time she has failed after paying a price that is fast becoming prohibitive,” (Symonds). Posted just after the Battle of Midway it showed that the Japanese had been planning this.

In the beginning of war, Japanese victory in Pacific terrified West Cost Americans. Partial victory for Americans appeared when Japanese capital Tokyo was bombed. It was less of a material loss but huge in terms of psychological attack. It was followed by the Battle of Coral Sea in May 1942 and after that the decisive Battle of Midway Island took place. U.S. aircraft carriers destroyed three out of four Japanese carriers that sabotaged their further plans of invasion and they adopted a defensive strategy.

Typical of Japanese naval planning during the Second World War, Yamamoto's battle plan was quite complex.[15] Additionally, his designs were predicated on optimistic intelligence information suggesting USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, forming Task Force 16, were the only carriers available to the U.S. Pacific Fleet at the time. USS Lexington had been sunk and USS Yorktown severely damaged (and believed by the Japanese to have been sunk) at the Battle of the Coral Sea just a month earlier. The Japanese were also aware that USS Saratoga was undergoing repairs on the West Coast after taking torpedo damage from a submarine.