Background

=Historical Background =

 In 1937, Japan was starting to reveal how powerful and imperialistic they actually were. In China, the Japanese invaded the city of Nanjing and raped and murdered men, women, and children. This invasion was known as the Rape of Nanjing. These imperialistic views of Japan led to the Battle of Midway because Japan wanted to take over even more land to better the empire of Japan. This Battle of Midway was the turning point for the war in the Pacific. Before this battle, the Japanese were in power. They were expanding their country and taking over territory throughout the Pacific and in Asia (Cressman and Parker 1). Although the Japanese were on the offensive, the imperial Japanese Navy had just experienced their most embarrassing defeat ever (Bruce 1). //Japan had been bombed in Tokyo, Yokosuka, and a collection of other towns//, that did not harm their military to a great extent, but did damage their morale (Bruce 1). The Japanese knew from this attack they wouldn’t be ready if the U.S. decided to bomb their emperor’s palace. An article explaining the Battle of Midway expresses, “By their attack, the Japanese had planned to capture Midway to use as an advance base, as well as to entrap and destroy the U.S Pacific Fleet” (Cressman and Parker 1). The Japanese Commander-in-Chief, **Admiral Yamamoto**,knew that the only way to win this war against the U.S and **Admiral Nimitz** was for it to be only a naval battle. So Yamamato went the Naval General Staff and when they refused his idea for an attack, he threatened to quit and the Naval General Staff gave into Yamamoto’s demands. Yamamato planned to use every fighting unit he could get his hands on that were not already assigned to there security around the empire. The plan was to fight the U.S. Pacific Fleet in a water battle around Midway. Admiral Yamamoto would lead the three Japanese battleships and a light carrier with eight attack planes. **Vice-Admiral Hosogaya Moshiro** would lead a carrier force with a light carrier, a converter cruise-liner, and a now-carrier all making up the Aleutians Strike Force, which would be backed up by four battleships, an assortment of cruisers, and destroyers. Hosogaya was planned to attack the U.S. Naval facilities at Dutch Harbor to draw so of the U.S.’s carriers to Alaska to thin out the ranks. Admiral Kondo Nobutake was to lead the Second Fleet of two battleships and a light carrier that was advised to protect Rear-Admiral Tanaka Raizo’s Invasion Force, which was composed of the First Air Fleet that had successfully attacked //Pearl Harbor// earlier. Admiral Yamamoto also planned out using traditional Japanese submarine cordons to sink as many ship as they could to make an easier fight. This whole attack plan had been set and ordered by the Naval General Staff on May 5, 1942.  The Japanese seemed far ahead of the U.S. from all these plans, but the U.S. had one great equalizer, U.S. Intelligence. This led by Commander Joesph P. Rochefort, whose new mission since Pearl Harbor was to decipher Admiral’s codes. From Japan’s radio, the U.S. was able to pick up on that they were getting together huge fleets ready for an attack. Rochefort worked hard to find more information about this operation and soon found that “AF” meant Midway and he assumed the attack would be there. He went to his superiors at Naval Communications in Washington, D.C., trying to convince them of his discovery but **Commander John Redman** strongly believed if the Japanese were to attack it would be at Hawaii and refused Rochefort’s theory.

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Commander Redman has a life or death decision to make, trust Rochefort and send the Naval Fleet to Midway Island or send them to Hawaii like he wants, but like Commander Redman you have a decision to make too. Follow the link below to make your decision. =====

The Decision