The Battle of Midway 1942: Told from the Japanese Perspective

[Theowl32]

Why was Midway of such strategic importance to the Japanese? They couldn't use it for a air base when the U.S. Navy pretty much had control over the area. My guess is that the Japanese thought it was an easy victory.

According to the vid it was a means to draw out the U.S. Navy so they could finish it off.
And they almost succeeded.

"Draw out and finish off the U.S. Navy?. Intelligence data seems to indicate that Japan wanted to avoid contact with the USN and achieve some sort of a symbolic but relatively meaningless victory when the war seemed to be turning against them.

Also, in April of 1942, the US made one response that terrified the Japanese. They had been concerned about the carriers cause they would be able to attack Japan with those carriers, not needing land based launching points.

Well, it was confirmed when the US made their infamous raid on April 18th when the US (never had been tried before) launched 16 B25s from the USS Hornet and struck Tokyo. They technically did little damage but from a psychological standpoint, it was great for the US.

 

[harmonica]

you want to divide the enemy and defeat each unit
the Japanese divided themselves
they didn't plan on US carriers being there at that time [ as did the Americans at Pearl ]
.....even if they took the island, they were overstretching their logistics everywhere--they didn't have the shipping/etc to hold what they took

 

[harmonica]

Interest

Yes, admiral nagumo certainly did have a dilemma. I like how this is done and it is worth a watch for those that enjoy watching accurate information about historical events.

Especially, the way he gives us the Japanese perspective.

Worth a watch.

Interesting but the long and short of it is that the Japanese were stupid shits from the get go. They picked a fight with someone way out of their weight class and bet the farm on a cheap sucker punch and lost their asses in the process. If anything they weren't punished enough for all the shit they pulled in the days before and during the war. I have no respect for them or anything they did, only disdain. My only wish is that we'd have had more nukes to use on them.

yes, the war was won at 8am Dec 7
....this was total war--not some little conflict and the US had many, many times the warmaking industry
....logistics usually determined timetables of invasions/battles etc .......and the Japanese were very inadequate in the logistics area.....an example: Guadalcanal 1942--they called it Starvation Island for a reason--and this was 1942 before the US had more of everything
why Japan lost the war = Grim Economic Realities

 

[harmonica]

The only logical explanation for the bungling at Pearl Harbor is that the FDR administration grossly underestimated Japan's military strength and instead relied on racial stereotypes instead of "intelligence". The administration considered the Japanese to be an inferior race that had some mysterious balance and vision problem and as such they would be pushovers in the real war. Four months later the U.S. lost an entire army at Corrigador and Battan while COS Marshall was blaming subordinates for his lack of leadership.

Which in the end turned out to be true in a certain sense.
But as was stated,the Japanese themselves knew that they had to end the war quickly before our massive production ability kicked in.
Another fuck up by the Japanese,all we had to do was sit back on the American mainland and start building weapons of war.
If Japan was unwilling to attack the U.S. mainland they were doomed from the get go.

.....they didn't have the power to do any significant damage to the US anyway
we were too big/self sufficient/etc
Grim Economic Realities

 

[Flash]

Interest

Yes, admiral nagumo certainly did have a dilemma. I like how this is done and it is worth a watch for those that enjoy watching accurate information about historical events.

Especially, the way he gives us the Japanese perspective.

Worth a watch.

Interesting but the long and short of it is that the Japanese were stupid shits from the get go. They picked a fight with someone way out of their weight class and bet the farm on a cheap sucker punch and lost their asses in the process. If anything they weren't punished enough for all the shit they pulled in the days before and during the war. I have no respect for them or anything they did, only disdain. My only wish is that we'd have had more nukes to use on them.

That is just like the scene in Band of Brothers as the surrendered German troops were marching by. He yelled out "what the hell were you idiots thinking"?

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

The only logical explanation for the bungling at Pearl Harbor is that the FDR administration grossly underestimated Japan's military strength and instead relied on racial stereotypes instead of "intelligence". The administration considered the Japanese to be an inferior race that had some mysterious balance and vision problem and as such they would be pushovers in the real war. Four months later the U.S. lost an entire army at Corrigador and Battan while COS Marshall was blaming subordinates for his lack of leadership.

Which in the end turned out to be true in a certain sense.
But as was stated,the Japanese themselves knew that they had to end the war quickly before our massive production ability kicked in.
Another fuck up by the Japanese,all we had to do was sit back on the American mainland and start building weapons of war.
If Japan was unwilling to attack the U.S. mainland they were doomed from the get go.

.....they didn't have the power to do any significant damage to the US anyway
we were too big/self sufficient/etc
Grim Economic Realities

Agreed..
Which kind of made their attempt pointless.

 

[Flash]

Why was Midway of such strategic importance to the Japanese? They couldn't use it for a air base when the U.S. Navy pretty much had control over the area. My guess is that the Japanese thought it was an easy victory.

According to the vid it was a means to draw out the U.S. Navy so they could finish it off.
And they almost succeeded.

Just like Hitler "almost" conquered Europe.

"Almost" doesn't count.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Fact: Japan got their ass kicked

To be honest we lucked out.
Certain things broke our way through no effort of our own.
The best you can say is we kept coming at em even through horrific loses.
In essence it was American guts that won the battle of Midway.

Can of what memorial day is all about.....the bravery of the men that were the early casualties set up the American victory in the end. We should never forget the men and women that died for freedom!

Fly the Flag this weekend!!!

Old Glory flies everyday at our home.

The only thing that keeps me from flying it daily is the rain and the lighting.
Ya gotta pull it in every night or light it,which I could deal with.
It's the taking it down for every rain that's the issue.

Use a weather-resistant flag. DUH!

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Why was Midway of such strategic importance to the Japanese? They couldn't use it for a air base when the U.S. Navy pretty much had control over the area. My guess is that the Japanese thought it was an easy victory.

According to the vid it was a means to draw out the U.S. Navy so they could finish it off.
And they almost succeeded.

"Draw out and finish off the U.S. Navy?. Intelligence data seems to indicate that Japan wanted to avoid contact with the USN and achieve some sort of a symbolic but relatively meaningless victory when the war seemed to be turning against them.

The vid says different. I'm no navel historian but it makes sense.
This is Midway at the beginning of the war so I dont see them avoiding contact. In fact they instigated contact.
I mean this was the second confrontation after Pearl so ya gotta think the japs were still in the Kill em now mindset.

You study the history of belly buttons?

 

[Moonglow]

Why was Midway of such strategic importance to the Japanese? They couldn't use it for a air base when the U.S. Navy pretty much had control over the area. My guess is that the Japanese thought it was an easy victory.

According to the vid it was a means to draw out the U.S. Navy so they could finish it off.
And they almost succeeded.

"Draw out and finish off the U.S. Navy?. Intelligence data seems to indicate that Japan wanted to avoid contact with the USN and achieve some sort of a symbolic but relatively meaningless victory when the war seemed to be turning against them.

Also, in April of 1942, the US made one response that terrified the Japanese. They had been concerned about the carriers cause they would be able to attack Japan with those carriers, not needing land based launching points.

Well, it was confirmed when the US made their infamous raid on April 18th when the US (never had been tried before) launched 16 B25s from the USS Hornet and struck Tokyo. They technically did little damage but from a psychological standpoint, it was great for the US.

First use of American kamikazes..

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Why was Midway of such strategic importance to the Japanese? They couldn't use it for a air base when the U.S. Navy pretty much had control over the area. My guess is that the Japanese thought it was an easy victory.

According to the vid it was a means to draw out the U.S. Navy so they could finish it off.
And they almost succeeded.

"Draw out and finish off the U.S. Navy?. Intelligence data seems to indicate that Japan wanted to avoid contact with the USN and achieve some sort of a symbolic but relatively meaningless victory when the war seemed to be turning against them.

Also, in April of 1942, the US made one response that terrified the Japanese. They had been concerned about the carriers cause they would be able to attack Japan with those carriers, not needing land based launching points.

Well, it was confirmed when the US made their infamous raid on April 18th when the US (never had been tried before) launched 16 B25s from the USS Hornet and struck Tokyo. They technically did little damage but from a psychological standpoint, it was great for the US.

First use of American kamikazes..

No such thing, dumbass!

 

[harmonica]

...the IJN HAVE to finish off the US carriers -- '''fast'''---if not they have a bad situation like Guadalcanal:
US land airbase-----very, very hard to take out
friendly carrier aircraft can refuel/land/repair/etc at Midway
US carriers is great position to protect Midway from air/land attack
--even if US carriers finished, the IJN have used up shipping fuel/aircraft fuel and ammo--they won't have much for continuous attacks on Midway

 

[harmonica]

The only logical explanation for the bungling at Pearl Harbor is that the FDR administration grossly underestimated Japan's military strength and instead relied on racial stereotypes instead of "intelligence". The administration considered the Japanese to be an inferior race that had some mysterious balance and vision problem and as such they would be pushovers in the real war. Four months later the U.S. lost an entire army at Corrigador and Battan while COS Marshall was blaming subordinates for his lack of leadership.

Which in the end turned out to be true in a certain sense.
But as was stated,the Japanese themselves knew that they had to end the war quickly before our massive production ability kicked in.
Another fuck up by the Japanese,all we had to do was sit back on the American mainland and start building weapons of war.
If Japan was unwilling to attack the U.S. mainland they were doomed from the get go.

.....they didn't have the power to do any significant damage to the US anyway
we were too big/self sufficient/etc
Grim Economic Realities

Agreed..
Which kind of made their attempt pointless.

....we see the military rule = act on what your enemy is capable of, not what you think he will do:
no one thought the Japanese would attack Pearl
the Japanese did not think the US carriers would be at Midway so soon
...the Japanese did not think the US would be so pissed after a surprise attack while we were negotiating!!!!!