Today is also the anniversary of the crucial Battle of Midway in 1942, a turning point in the World War II struggle against Imperial Japan. Yale professor David Galernter calls on us to remember.
Samuel Eliot Morison was one of the 20th century's most eminent American historians. His writing is vivid, but in "The Two-Ocean War" he appeals directly to his readers just once. Speaking of airmen who died at the Battle of Midway, he writes, "Think of them, reader, every Fourth of June. They and their comrades who survived changed the whole course of the Pacific War."As June 1942 began, Japan was on a rampage. America had yet to recover from Pearl Harbor, hit in late '41. The Japanese had just launched a campaign to grab Midway Island from the U.S. as a base for more air strikes against Hawaii and to open the central Pacific to attack.
The two fleets faced off north of Midway, too far apart to reach each other with gunfire. The battle was fought by aircraft. There were three American carriers (virtually all that remained of the U.S. Pacific fleet) versus four large Japanese carriers.
The battle went badly for the U.S. fleet until the very last moments.
"For about one hundred seconds" at the heart of the battle, Morison writes, "the Japanese were certain they had won the Battle of Midway, and the war."Then, one more group of U.S. warplanes suddenly appeared — dive bombers led by Lt. Cmdr. Clarence W. McClusky. In countering the previous attacks, Japanese fighter planes had been drawn downward — leaving American bombers unmolested at 14,000 feet, free to dive on the Japanese ships. Two carriers were sunk. Soon afterward a third was destroyed, later a fourth. The U.S. went on to win the battle — and the war.
Why must we remember? Because Midway was the turning point in our war with Japan — which is central, in turn, to our understanding of the 20th century and the human race.
Tip via The Braden Files.
Related: NPR's Talk of the Nation recently featured an interview with military historian John Lundstrom on what he believes is the underappreciated role of Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher both at Midway and elsewhere in the Pacific War. It's interesting that we are still sorting who did what, and why, after all these years.
Oddly, Lundstrom doesn't mention that Fletcher won the Medal of Honor for heroism at Vera Cruz in 1914.
Posted by Alan at June 4, 2005 03:30 PM