Pacific War: While some contend that the Battle of Midway marked the point in World War II where the tide turned irrevocably against Japan, others cite the fight to maintain control of Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands as decisive in the outcome of the Pacific War. Which argument is correct?
The attack on Thailand sparked a new view to the World War II with many nations reacting furiously to the attack. The pacific war, one of the most heated in the World War II, was highly motivated by this attack. The entry of Japan in the war changed the equation completely. The allied powers had overcome the axis powers despite the fact that the former had attacked Thailand and the latter reacted to the attack. Coming on the side of the axis powers, Japan made the allied powers weaker by strengthening the axis forces. After securing their strength in part of the pacific, Japan set to control Midway. This triggered the battle of Midway against the allied powers and the United States (Yost 133). This paper argues the most probable circumstance that marked the turning point in World War II.
Many people suggest that the loss to Japan in the battle of Midway resulted from a tide that turned against the empire due to various reasons. Firstly, Japan sought to destroy the US navy before it was large enough to outdo them in the war. They were not lucky however because US intelligence found out of their plans. The revelations came after the United States of America found out of the plot and broke the Japanese naval code (Ulbrich 1249). Japan was clearly suffering a result of their own ambitions while America anticipated retaliation from the Japanese forces. When the Japanese army finally reacted, sent their troops to Midway, and attacked the Japanese army thus weakening Japan.
Apart from their plan becoming known, Japan was overwhelmed by their conquering entry into the pacific war. When Japan entered the pacific war, the tilt in the war was significant enough to shake the allied powers. Japan joined the pacific war on the side of the Axis powers and fought in a way that destabilized the allied powers hugely. On the way, Japan conquered many countries and territories that would be of strategic and economic importance to the empire. This made Japan happy and adventurous with midway the next target, as it would weaken the United States. The result of this advancement was that the American forces scattered around them and they were able to contain them before they could launch any major attacks (Paret 139).
The Midway battle was a tide turned sour on the Japanese side because the essential reason for their defeat was the ability of the American forces to read their moves and plans. The fact that the United States army broke the JN-25 as soon as it set to start worked for the Americans greatly. The American army knew the plans of the Japanese army at least a week in advance. They knew where Japan planned an attack and even knew the number of ships that Japan would use in any attack. On the reverse side, they planned to counter the attacks by loading more arms and more men to fight the Japanese army. Essentially, with their plans widely known to all the American forces, the Japanese forces had a hard time countering the Americans as they could be attacked even before they get to their destined attacking points and sometimes they were ambushed.
The battle was a tide that turned against Japan because the Americans undertook heavy reinforcements after they had read of the moves by the Japanese army. With the Japanese strength known to America, they knew the areas to strengthen in order to defeat the Japanese. The battle at the Pearl of Harbor saw the Yorktown, one of the strongest reinforcement battleships destroyed. However, after the breaking of the JN-25 code, the only reinforcement capable of the heat was the Yorktown. After rushing it through a few days of repair, the American armies took it as reinforcement for the warships fighting in the war. The reinforcement was a surprise that Japan was not ready to resist (Evans and Mark 126). They had enough arms to fight but the Yorktown had enough resistance with the ability to contain some damage before it sank. It played the most valuable delay tactic because although it was sunk eventually, it provided awesome support to the allies.
As much as Japan had enough weapons to fight the war, United States defeated Japan simply because the Americas had enough land-based aircraft ready for the war. Firstly, the United States had a separate branch of the army that aided their resilience and attack on the Japanese forces called the Army Air force (Paret 40). The army had two main squadrons that enabled the United States of America to make a well-planned attack on Japan. The first pat consisted of four B-17 squadrons located on the island. This enabled the American forces to counter the Japanese forces on land and resist any forces from the Japanese army. The fact that the Americans knew the plans of Japanese armies at least a week to time, they planned well on the land attacks hence they easily resisted the attacks on the island. The second part of the squadrons was the marine squad with additional support planes to boost their operations. The presence of these marine experts partly blocked any advances by the Japanese on the sea (Marston 146).
The loss in this war eventually turned the world war on another trail and America was on a war it would eventually win. With Japan weakened and defeated, America had a go in the war. The axis powers had one of their strongest fighters down hence a view that the battle turned the war around is significant enough. However, the naval battle to maintain the control of Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands also played a major role in the victory over Japan in the pacific war. Guadalcanal was significant to Japan because it was the only consolidation Centre after the midway mistakes. The arm was building a base on the island to act as their watchtower and help them attack Coral Sea. America sought to limit the advances of the Japanese army in the pacific war by destroying their plans to establish on the two islands, which produced a highly bloody war, which went down into history of the world war.
The Japanese were busy building an airstrip on the island while the American forces plotted how they could undertake the final assault on them. A battle was looming. However, the war was delayed for maps would not help the fighters on the war front. However, the two-phase war marked the final fall of the Japanese army. This was the only time during the World War II when America and the Japanese forces had equal strength. None of the two forces knew the plans of the other hence the attacks and counter attacks all came as surprises to both camps. This makes the battle a huge turning point in the pacific war (Martin 37).
On the first front, the allies sent two combative forces to land at Tulagi and Guadalcanal. This was to no intelligence of the Japanese forces. Thirteen destroyers accompanied the landing force. Four would cover the force, three cruisers, and six bombarding the enemy camp. This was a huge ambush to Japan. Australian cruisers helped make the attack more viral with three close to the landing and six destroyers. Japan could not stand this hence they ran and hid to regroup (Baer 57). However, on the same day, the Japanese attacked back sinking one of their transport systems and destroying a destroyer to set a heavy war on a bitter start.
The battle of the Savo Island provided a huge retaliation ground for the Japanese who launched the IJN Chokai, launching a floatplane that dropped flares on the American forces on the island. The Japanese forces destroyed the three heavy cruisers from the allied side namely the USS Quincy, the USS Astoria, and the USS Vincennes. This demonstrated that Japan was ready to give all effort to outdo the allies. This could have been the winning point of Japan in the battle had they opted to withdraw their forces from the Guadalcanal. However, they delayed there and their naval intelligence leaked to the allied forces. Japan would soon be attacked in the same fashion with the Midway scenario.
Later, the naval intelligence leaked from the Japanese camp, Admiral Fletcher planned an assault on the Japanese forces. He ordered air strikes on all the Japanese ships and land war loads that were approaching the Guadalcanal. The air strikes cleared all the carrier patrols and the 23 marine bombers to weaken the Japanese army. That was one of the strongest attacks to the Japanese forces. The following day, the forces cleared a Japanese ship seen close to the island. According to Lane (131), Fletcher ordered 23 war loads to descend on the ship and sink it, successfully ensuring the Japanese army had no option but to surrender. Japan had lost their three main areas of control and interest, which pushed her to stay strong in the war. The Pearl of Harbor, the Midway, and the Guadalcanal loss signified that Japan was weak and that the allies controlled all their strong areas.
The battle to control the Guadalcanal and the Solomon islands was the decisive factor in the pacific war. However, the significance of the other Japanese encounters also contributed to the victory of the allies in the pacific war. The mistake at the Pearl of Harbor left the allies with their fuel supplies and their arms would be serviced there. The mistake at the Midway meant that the allies knew the intelligence of the Japanese forces and that they could not plan any secret strategic attack on the allies. However, the loss of the control over the Guadalcanal and the Solomon islands meant that Japan lost their dominance; thus, emanating as ultimate decision point in the pacific war.
Works Cited
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