Some historians have placed the blame for Japan’s failure at Midway squarely on the shoulders of the author of the Japanese plan, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. It was Yamamoto who planned the diversionary attack on the Aleutians and divided his remaining ships into three separate task groups rather than massing his forces. Complicated planning, however, was not unique to Yamamoto. In fact, it seems to have been ingrained into the Japanese psyche. It appeared again in October 1944 at Leyte Gulf, and the results were disastrous once more.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in World War II magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

At the end of the motion picture Midway, Rochefort (played by Hal Holbrook) comments to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (Henry Fonda), commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific: “It just doesn’t make any sense. Were we better than the Japanese or just luckier?” The answer to that question matters little. In a few short days in June 1942, heroes were made, the tide was turned and an empire was lost.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to