Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story

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Summary: Great insight into Midway and The Japanese Navy
Review: A great book written in the first person by a Captain in the Japanese Naval Airforce. Footnotes by the American editors added interesting facts not known by the authors.

Of particular interest to this engineer was how unsophisticated their capabilities were: none of the ships had radar, they usually had no idea were the enemy(that's us guys)were, their aerial recon was pathetic and they had no night fighting capability because they could never find the targets or return to their own ships in darkness!

Their mentality that once a plan was made, it could not be changed or delayed, played a major role in their defeat. Of course Ike's version of that mentality damn near doomed The Normandy Invasion, what with a bunch of sea sick soldiers fighting their way ashore! But that's another story, with a happier ending.

Adm Spruance didn't get the credit he deserved for launching a perfectly timed strike which arrived in the midst of refueling the returning Midway strike force.

It is surprising that when the US, Great Britan and even Germany were throwing resources at gathering intel, breaking codes and trying to gain the slightest edge in force location, Japan was blundering forward with slight regard to Military intelligence and apparently no coordination of what they did have.

A very good book!

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Summary: Very Interesting book
Review: I Don't need to say much about this book that hasn,t already been said. Great book!

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Summary: Very educational
Review: I haven't quite finished reading this book but I wanted to do a review of it while it is fresh in my head. It was nice to read a book about the battle of Midway from the Japanese point of view. It was even nicer to read a book about how arrogance can blind you from doing things the right way. In reading this book you really start to realize how lucky the United States got at the battle of Midway. By all rights the force that the Japanese had amassed should have crushed the US Fleet that was gathered to meet them. The US was lucky that it broke the Japanese Navy code and had a pretty good idea of where the Japanese were while the Japanese were poking in the dark and had no idea of what was waiting for them. It is a good thing that Fuchida had an appendectomy right before the battle because if he hadn't we probably wouldn't have been able to read this little gem.

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Summary: Hubris: The Price of Empire
Review: It is clear in "Midway" that, in the pursuit of Empire, Japan paid a terrible price. In its quest for the decisive fleet engagement, and in order to prevent another Doolittle raid, the Imperial Navy sought to draw out the United States Pacific Fleet by invading the tiny island of Midway. Until Midway, the Japanese were having a free hand in Asia. The Midway plan was thus tainted by hubris. First, believing in the utter invincibility of their fleet, Japanese naval planners opted for a plan which divided their forces, clearly a violation of one of the basic precepts of war. Second, they drew up an invasion plan which relegated their powerful carriers to a supporting role. This also had the effect of unmasking the battleship mentality so prevalent at the time. Third, they assumed that the enemy would act as anticipated. Fourth, in executing the plan, they somehow lost sight of their true objective: to lure the US Pacific Fleet, especially its carriers, into a vulnerable position and destroy it.

Fuchida and Okumiya place the reader on the bridge of the Akagi as she prepares to launch her airborne armada. One can only watch helplessly as the bombs begin to fall on the Japanese carriers at the moment of maximum peril, when bombs were scattered along the decks and fuel lines snaked between planes and flight personnel.

Rating:
Summary: Hubris: The Price of Empire
Review: It is clear in "Midway" that, in the pursuit of Empire, Japan paid a terrible price. In its quest for the decisive fleet engagement, and in order to prevent another Doolittle raid, the Imperial Navy sought to draw out the United States Pacific Fleet by invading the tiny island of Midway. Until Midway, the Japanese were having a free hand in Asia. The Midway plan was thus tainted by hubris. First, believing in the utter invincibility of their fleet, Japanese naval planners opted for a plan which divided their forces, clearly a violation of one of the basic precepts of war. Second, they drew up an invasion plan which relegated their powerful carriers to a supporting role. This also had the effect of unmasking the battleship mentality so prevalent at the time. Third, they assumed that the enemy would act as anticipated. Fourth, in executing the plan, they somehow lost sight of their true objective: to lure the US Pacific Fleet, especially its carriers, into a vulnerable position and destroy it.

Fuchida and Okumiya place the reader on the bridge of the Akagi as she prepares to launch her airborne armada. One can only watch helplessly as the bombs begin to fall on the Japanese carriers at the moment of maximum peril, when bombs were scattered along the decks and fuel lines snaked between planes and flight personnel.

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Summary: A Must Book for Serious Pacific War Buffs...
Review: Many accounts of the battle of Midway have been written from the American point of view and of the reasons for our success--code breaking and trickery to reveal the target, the amazing repair job done on the Yorktown, and American adaptation to battle conditions plus a little bit of luck. Little is known, however, of the Japanese view of the battle.

A few years after Midway two Japanese Naval aviators, Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya, wrote a scathing critique of the battle, exposing Japanese overconfidence, the rigidity of Japanese decision-making, and tarnishing in so doing the reputations of Admiral Yamamoto and others. Fushica's views are particularly valuable in that he was aboard the Japanese carrier Akagi during the battle, though grounded because of a recent operation. His record of the terrifying few minutes when the Dauntless dive bombers came out of the clouds to destroy the heart of the Japanese carrier fleet are invaluable, including his rescue and eventual return to Japan. Okumiya was attached to the northern force, part of the Midway operation, that attacked the fog-bound Aleutians, but who gathered much information about the battle afterwards from survivors.

The authors are harsh on the fecklessness of the Japanese naval forays into the Indian ocean which accomplished little of strategic value, the high-level conflicts in the Japanese decision-making process, and the over-confidence generated by their success at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere.
Tactics are also criticized, such as the perfunctory search plane missions to detect and locate enemy forces because the Japanese high command could not imagine that US forces might be within striking distance.

The book, reissued some years back by the Naval Institute Press, also contains footnotes that adds information not known to the Japanese authors at the time of writing.
The book is highly recommended for filling out the blanks in the battle of Midway and of adding details to the failures of Japanese strategic planning and decision-making.

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Summary: The Sleeping Giant awakens and strikes back!
Review: Reading the account of Midway through the eyes of the Japanese opponent, and a key individual at that, is truly a must read for any serious student of the Pacific war. There are many books that cover the turning of the tide against the Japanese from the US point of view and worth reading, but this is the one to have a companion to any and all of them. To hear the recounting through Japanese eyes of the initial and unsuccessful aerial assaults from Midway land-based aircraft and the torpedo squadrons from Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet is truly captivating. To see how and why it gave rise to feeling of virtual invincibility on the part of the Japanese until the unchallenged dive bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown attacked is a fine study of Japanese tactics and dogma. The dive bombers deadly success in knocking out three of the four Japanese carriers in scant moments when they had sailed undamaged from the hail of US attacks for hours is described virtually bomb by bomb. The authors describe this from the deckplates in riveting style recounting actual conversations and feelings as the pride of the Japanese Navy was suddenly aflame and suffering death throes. I have reread this part of the book many times and been spellbound each time as the events play out. These particular passages and those describing the logic leading to delays in launching aircraft and switching of ordnance make this book unique and extremely worthwhile. The rest of the book is chockfull of key insights and details as well making it a mandatory part of any serious collection. The publishers deserve credit for realizing this and keeping it in print for so many years. One of its strengths is its readability despite those years. True, the breaking of the Imperial Navy code allowed the three US carriers to be in a position to challenge the Japanese attempt to take Midway. But no codebreaking on our part substitutes for the final critical moments when both carrier forces were aware of each other and sent their best aviators to slug it out. The fourth carrier, which survived the devastating carrier dive bomber attacks, met its end later at the hands of a second strike by US carrier aircraft, but not before the surviving Japanese aircraft heavily damaged Yorktown in their last assault. The results of this battle were kept from the Japanese public and much of the military for years. It pierced the supposed invincibility of the Samurai spirit while giving the US a turning point victory and continued possession of the vital Midway atoll. I applaud the authors for their willingness to examine the Japanese defeat in detail and make no apologies or excuses.

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Summary: The Battle of Midway as seen by the Japanese--powerful!
Review: This is a splendid analysis of the Battle of Midway as seen from the Japanese side. The authors had firsthand knowledge of the plans, actions, mistakes, strengths, and weaknesses of the Imperial Japanese Navy in connection with the Battle of Midway, and they pull no punches telling us about the battle. The Battle of Midway turned the tide of the Pacific War for all time against Japan, as an outnumbered and outmatched, but plucky, U.S. Navy inflicted a devastating defeat on the greatest carrier force ever assembled up to that time. This book goes far in explaining how this miracle took place. The authors tell us about the dithering of the Japanese commander as to whether to strike Midway again, or to strike the American fleet, or do a hasty strike against the American fleet before all his planes were recovered--and how this indecision helped lose a battle that almost could not be lost. So too did the sloppiness of the deck crews, who stacked bombs and torpedos carelessly on the decks of the carriers as the Admiral kept changing his mind--this ordinance of course exploded when the American dive bombers attacked, ensuring that three Japanese carriers went to the bottom, rather than having a chance of surviving through damage control. The book is filled with excellent details like this.

The authors also do a fine job explaining the motivations and outlooks of the Japanese leaders, including the great famed Admiral Yamamoto--who evidently reacted to the Doolittle Raid by pushing for the attack on Midway. This key decision signed Japan's death warrant as regards the Pacific war. Had Japan instead turned west and attacked Russia, this could have changed the entire complexion of the war, as Germany might have prevailed against Russia, forcing the US to divert even more resources in its "Germany First" policy. The authors reveal how close Japan may have been to adopting this strategy.

This book impresses the reader not just with the mistakes the Japanese made, but also of the tenacity, skill, and competence of the former Japanese foe. The book was written in the early 1950s and the authors' viewpoints are somewhat overly colored by the aftermath of defeat--Japan had not yet shaken off the trauma of defeat and this pessimism about Japan's prospects is readily apparent. I trust the authors lived to see that in reality the Japanese people won, not lost, the war by becoming a prosperous and democratic economic powerhouse.

Incidentally, it appeared clear to me that the movie "Battle of Midway" with Henry Fonda was essentially based on this book.

This is a fine analysis of the most important battle of the Pacific War and constitutes essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the Battle of Midway and the reasons that Japan was defeated in both the battle and the war.

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Summary: A view from the other side
Review: This is quite a short book that was written by two Japanese one who was a flyer from the Akagi. Although a book of a little over 200 pages the book describes the attack on Pearly Harbour, the cruise of the Japanese carrier fleet in the Indian Ocean and the attack on Sri Lanka, the bombing of Darwin, the battle of the Coral Sea and Midway.

The facts around these battles have been explained in a range of other books so that there are no real surprises. What is of interest is the insight that the book gives into the process of Japanese decision making during the war.

The authors show that following the victory at Pearl Harbour the Japanese didn't know what to do. The cruise to the Indian Ocean achieved little and used a large amount of their oil reserves. The overall command simply was not able to formulate a plan. Some groups thought of invading Darwin a plan which was shelved. In the end the attack on Midway was decided on. Such a plan put the Japanese miles from home at a considerable disadvantage.

The authors go on to show how the arrogance and self-confidence in that attack doomed the Japanese fleet. The failure to properly use sighting planes, the leaving of large numbers of aircraft on deck prior to the American attack.

The book is one of the most coherent attacks on the reputation of Yamamoto that I have read. For some reason Yamamoto has had a high reputation with American writers. The record shows that although Pearl Harbor went to plan it was all down hill after that.

The book is readable and evokes the frustration of felt by Japanese fighting men at the shortcomings of their leaders.

Rating:
Summary: History's Other Side
Review: Why? This was a battle organized by the Japanese admirals. They chose the time & place. Yet, they suffered from a huge loss because of some false assumptions. US job was decoded the Japanese's code and planed an ambush, as Jack Flecther put it, 'Strike, repeat Strike'. The book tell the story of the whole Japanese preparation/psychology before/during/after the in a really terse and yet informative way. The reasons for a 4 stars instead of a 5 stars from me are:
1. It doesn't has as much detail map of the battle as some of the other books has. Hence, it is difficult to track what happen to different task forces.
2. It doesn't cover the Japanese naval warfare's design & tactics as detail as I hoped. Fortunely, these topics are covered by another book, Kaigun, by the same publisher, Naval Institute.