War has both positive and negative impacts. The positive effects may range from victory and the turn of events where the side that had no chance of winning wins with fewer casualties or less economic spending. Historians and other war researches have included many impacts of war, but they have generalized the result of a war based on the strategies used by the leaders and achieving the intended results. They tend to term any conflict leading to war as positive even if the resources damaged are a huge economic loss or leads to multiple and unimaginable casualties, the impact is regarded as positive. Defeat even when the losses are minimal or as expected is regarded as some negative consequences no matter how one views the war since it empowers the enemy and creates shame and weaknesses to the losing side. Over the centuries, different conflicts have resulted in wars with some of the most famous wars being, the Trojan War, the French Revolution, the first and Second World War These wars are famous for the change in superiority or change in power for the participating parties before and after the wars.
WW II was the last biggest war ever known to humanity as it was fought amongst almost all countries in the world and it changed the dimension of the scope global power. It also illustrated the strength of different strategies that led to either winning or losing the wars. Territories determined the results of the war and one of such features are evident in the regional war within the Pacific Ocean islands as Japan tried its best to populate most of the islands and ensure that it reduced the dangers or exposure of war being fought on its home soil. The strategies used in the Pacific War were determinants of the victors and losers of WW II. The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast two of the most determinant Pacific Wars namely; the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Iwo Jima. The paper will analyze the strategies used in these campaigns and determine why they were of great importance to the allies and mainly the USA. The two wars mainly were between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the USA. The first section will offer the background of the situations before the commencing of the war, the brief description of the war, the strategies used and the final results. The other sections will discuss why the battle was termed as a great victory. Following these sections that analyze both battles separately, the next chapter will try and compare the similarities and differences of the strategies used, how the battle was fought and the impacts of the battles. Since the Battle of Midway was first of the two battles, the paper will thus analyze it first before analyzing the Battle of Iwo Jima.
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The Imperial Japanese Navy had taken over almost the entire Pacific Ocean islands and had never lost a battle. The Japanese at the time were the dominant force, and their enjoyed superiority were evident six months before the Battle of Midway. Under the guidance of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese had strategized to cripple U.S. Navy after they bombed the Pearl Harbor leading to the US Navy losing thousands of men and some of their carriers. The need for Japan to dominate the US and ensure that most of the battle with the allies was fought far from their home soil led to the imperial’s Navy to attempt taking over Australia 1 . These needs resulted in the Battle of Coral Sea in the bid to take over New Guinea which would isolate Australia to enable them to conquer it.
The American Navy assistance in that led to the failure of the Japanese fleet from obtaining the port angered the Japanese. Since they knew that the American navy was weak following the Pearl Harbor bombing and the engagement in the battle of Coral Sea that had taken place on May 1942, Yamamoto knew that Japanese dominance was only possible if they eliminated American Navy hence the decision to invade and take over Midway. The bombing of Tokyo by U.S. in April 1942 had also humiliated the Japanese and had vowed to eliminate American Navy from the Pacific 2 .
In the efforts to revenge the humiliation and ensure that they were the dominant Navy, the Imperial gave the go-ahead to strike eastward in the Pacific where Yamamoto who had helped strategize most of the Japanese victory chose Midway. He chose Midway since it was a perfect location to extend their perimeter. He knew the U.S. would send all their remaining forces, that is, aircraft carriers, ships, and warships among any other war weapons they had to protect Midway which was close to their naval base and was mostly used when the U.S. engaged in Pacific war.
Yamamoto strategy was to disperse its fleet, and with the Americans rushing to save Midway, the other fleet would overwhelm the American fleet by other aircraft carriers closed in and surrounded the Americans 3 . The strategy would surprise the U.S. Navy, and they would have to surrender or be slaughtered due to the advantage of numbers of the soldiers, aircraft, aircraft carriers and warships. In all the preparations the Japanese navy believed that they had sunk the aircraft carrier Yorktown 4 . Commander in chief of the Pacific Ocean Navy Nimitz had ensured that the repairs were completed within 72 hours to add to the other two carriers USS Enterprise and USS Hornet which the Japanese we expecting to be the only remaining carriers the American navy had.
The USS Yorktown was a surprise for the entire Japanese navy, but they still had four carriers namely; the Arashi, Akagi, Kaga, and Hiryu 5 . All the carriers apart from the Arashi were left behind to move in different directions, and the Arashi would attract the U.S. Navy into attack where the other carriers would come to the rescue and ambush the Americans. The Americans on the other hand had the upper-hand in that they had intercepted Japanese’ radio calls and cracked their code making it possible for them to know every move the Japanese were planning. Commander-in-chief Nimitz with the help of Rear Admiral Spruance, Rear Admiral Fletcher and their fleet planned on surprising the imperial’s navy 6 . They knew that they were outmanned and outgunned thus they sent aircraft bombers to the location of the Japanese carrier, but all the bombers missed. The Japanese fleet under the command of Nagumo were under strict orders to follow protocol, but they had not strategized for the surprise attack, and Nagumo was slow to react, and the diversion bombing of Alaska had not divided the U.S. Navy as it was planned to do. Nagumo sent about 82 aircraft bombers but they were not able to sink the USS Yorktown, and most of their aircraft bombers were shot down leading to massive losses 7 .
The war took place from down of 4th June 1942, and with the grand strategy and effort to win the U.S. Navy was able to stop defeat the Japanese by exploiting any mistake the Japanese made. For instance, the three Japanese carriers Akiga, Kaga, and Hiryu we all bombed as they followed a U.S. submarine at the same time thus reducing the Japanese resources 8 . The Arashi was still the greatest threat as it was used for refueling and also was the best of their carriers. Nagumo sent another wave which was able to break the USS Yorktown but it sunk too slowly before one of their submarines bombed it and split it into two. The USS Hornet was also destroyed, but in the event of refueling the aircraft, U.S. aircraft bombers attacked the Arashi which exploded and sank with its fleet 9 . The Japanese resources, defense, and skilled pilots and soldiers were dead, and it was all for the Japanese fleet and a great victory for America. The strategy of Commander-in-chief of Pacific fleet Nimitz to ensure that the battle was not going to be similar to other Pacific wars where the carriers and warships were determinants of the war was a masterclass in that he ensured that the U.S. Navy used air tactic. He knew the Commander of the Japanese flight was not a master of air attacks and wanted the ship superiority to be his and Yamamoto’s masterstroke 10 .
The surprise attack from the air made the battle to be special in that the ships and carriers did not see eye-to-eye and the crucial element was pilots’ combat skills and maneuvers that depleted the Japanese resources. The battle had caused Japan four carriers, approximately 2,500 casualties, a cruiser, and about 292 aircraft whereas America suffered losses of 300 soldiers, a destroyer, and one carrier and 145 aircraft thus showing the tactical strength of the U.S. Navy leadership and reasons it is termed as a game changer in the Pacific War 11 . The flexibility in strategy demonstrated by the U.S. Navy was also a major factor in deciding the outcome of the battle and later the results of the Pacific War and WW II as discussed later in the paper.
The victory at Midway is correctly given the title of the decisive battle of the Pacific War as Churchill claimed, it reversed the direction of the Pacific War after one dominating stroke. Although the Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Navy was the dominant fleet and it was evident in the many victories it had won and the U.S. Navy at the time was living in the shadows of the Japanese navy which had earlier been depicted at Pearl Harbor bombing. Following the battle of Midway, the Japanese navy was depleted-off its skilled marines and soldiers and in need to eliminate Japanese threat or rebuilding the U.S. Navy started taking control of island that the Japanese had control over and won all the wars. The acquiring of the Mariana Island that was about 1,200 miles away from Japan home soil led to America’s and allied soldiers to focus on Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima, a small volcanic island about 660 miles from Tokyo, was not in the plans of the America’s plan as they had the B-29 bombers that would reach the Japanese home islands and bomb Japan into submission 12 .
The threat of Japan’s fortress that was between Japan and Mariana made it impossible for the Americans to carry-out their attacks as the Japanese defenders in Iwo Jima intercepted the B-29s as they flew over the island and while returning. The defenders also bombed the bombers while they were taking off in Mariana and destroyed repairs and other processes taking place in Mariana air stripes 13 . These issues made it clear that for the mission to bomb Japan home islands, the U.S. Marines had to take control over Iwo Jima. The U.S. Marines invade the island on 19th February 1945, after months of air and naval bombardment.
The several months’ bombings were due to the terrain of the isle which enabled the Japanese defenders to have a home ground advantage due to the honeycomb underground hideouts and their weaponry. Although the U.S. Marines outmanned the Japanese defenders were able to monitor their movements as they were in their hideouts and on higher grounds whereas the U.S. marines were at sea and beaches. The volcanic island was a hostile ground for war, and unlike any other environment, the Americans had fought in, which is demonstrated by the high number of casualties that was about 7,000 whereas those wounded were about 20,000. The war took 36 days with American marines winning and killing about 18,000 Japanese defenders and capturing 216 soldiers 14 . The win although had inflicted enormous economic and personnel losses as it was the bloodiest battle in maritime history, it was one of the greatest wins. It enabled the U.S. and allies’ emergency landing sites for their 2,200 B-29s in their continued attack on Japan and allowed saving of about 24,000 airmen during the future attacks, for instance, the battle of Okinawa.
The analysis above describes the strategies, the battles, and the factors that made the victories significant to the Americans. Many war historians have undertaken different ways of demonstrating the decisive factors of these two great achievements, but it is clear that different strategies and factors elaborate their greatness. The battle of Midway illustrates the complexity of strategy used by the Imperial Japanese Navy was detrimental in that it around the U.S. Navy to surprise them and change the dynamics of the battle. The sophisticated dispersal tactic was ineffective compared to the soft tactical skills demonstrated by the U.S. Navy. The essence that the U.S. Navy was outmanned and outgunned made the victory greater bearing in mind that Japanese fleet was the force to reckon with at the time. The battle also enabled the reversal of how the war was fought, that is, before the battle, the Japanese were known for their attacking strategy whereas the Americans who were not at the heights of the Japanese were always defensive.
Following the battle of Midway, Americans became more offensive whereas the Japanese role was changed to being defensive which played a huge role in the main victories that America gained over Japan. The ability to intercept and crack Japanese radio codes was also a masterstroke as it enabled the Americans to surprise the Japanese and illustrate its superiority in communication intelligence a factor that would help the Americans and Allied forces in the Pacific War and WW II 15 . The battle brought confidence following the demoralizing bombing of Pearl Harbor at the hands of the imperial’s fleet. The short period of the battle, which was about three days and the minimal losses made the battle an economic success and ensured that America had more carriers to engage in their next battles as only the USS Yorktown sunk during the battle.
The battle of Midway resulted in huge losses to the Japanese navy as earlier discussed, these losses weakened their navy, and with the confident U.S. Navy continuously attacking island after island, the Japanese were unable to regroup and train other soldiers who would change the tide in their favor. Japanese weaknesses are evident in the loss and the failure of their carriers which made their defensive ability weak and venerable thus further attacks would always result to defeats as illustrated in the other battles that took place in the Pacific War 16 . These factors that helped the U.S. to dominate Japan and the incredible achievement that many people claim it was a lucky win changed the dimensions of the Pacific war and played a key role in the eventual winner that is the USA, hence it efficiently champions the title of being a great victory.
The battle of Iwo Jima, on the other hand, was planned strategically by the Americans unlike their active strategy that won the battle of Midway, the battle was different. The project to bomb the island to enable the Japanese defenders to weaken or move from their hideouts failed and threatened to continue failing or accepting defeat before the Americans opted for a different strategy that involved direct confrontations. The battle although regarded as a great victory due to the necessity of Iwo Jima island, in the battle, it had massive economic losses and many casualties. Unlike the previous wars, the Americans face enormous challenges in that the Japanese strategy to use their terrains to their advantage, protection, and ability to surprise and hurt the U.S. Marines leading to many casualties 17 . Unlike the battle of Midway, the battle took place on the land and involved physical confrontations thus tactical strategies were of less significance compared to that in Midway. The U.S. had more soldiers compared to the Japanese defenders hence the use of confrontation meant that numbers won the battle. The victory in Iwo Jima was a great victory as enabled Japan to become vulnerable for the allies’ attack and the continued Pacific war. If the USA had not won the battle, it would not have been able to engage in the next battle of Okinawa, and it would also have changed the dynamics of the Pacific war. The battle also cemented U.S. naval superiority over the Japanese and further weakened the defense of Japan home islands 18 . The paper has adequately demonstrated the reasons the two battles are regarded as great victories and illustrated the issue of tactics, communication intelligence, and courage to use any means possible to win which have ever since been associated with the greatness of American forces.
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