Navy marks battle’s anniversary

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Six months after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan sent four aircraft carriers to the tiny Pacific atoll of Midway to draw out and destroy what remained of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

But this time the U.S. knew about Japan’s plans. U.S. cryptologists had cracked Japanese communications codes, giving Fleet Commander Adm. Chester Nimitz notice of where Japan would strike, the day and time of the attack, and what ships the enemy would bring to the fight.

The U.S. was badly outnumbered and its pilots less experienced than Japan’s. Even so, it sank four Japanese aircraft carriers the first day of the three-day battle and put Japan on the defensive, greatly diminishing its ability to project air power as it had in the attack on Hawaii.

Monday, current Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Cecil Haney and other officials flew 1,300 miles northwest from Oahu to Midway to mark the 70th anniversary of the pivotal battle that changed the course of the Pacific war.

“After the battle of Midway we always maintained the initiative and for the remaining three years of the war, the Japanese reacted to us,” Vice Adm. Michael Rogers, commander of the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, told a crowd gathered outside Nimitz’s old office at Pearl Harbor on Friday to commemorate the role naval intelligence played in the events of June 4-7, 1942.

Intelligence wasn’t the only reason for the U.S. victory.

The brave heroics by dive bomber pilots, Japanese mistakes and luck all played a role. But Nimitz himself observed it was critical to the outcome, said retired Rear Adm. Mac Showers, the last surviving member of the intelligence team that deciphered Japanese messages.

“His statement a few days later was ‘had it not been for the excellent intelligence that was provided, we would have read about the capture of Midway in the morning newspaper,’ ” Showers said in an interview.

The U.S. lost one carrier, 145 planes and 307 men. Japan lost four aircraft carriers, a heavy cruiser, 291 planes and 4,800 men, according to the U.S. Navy and to an account by former Japanese naval officers in “Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy’s Story.”

The defeat was so overwhelming that the Japanese Navy kept the details a closely guarded secret and most Japanese never heard of the battle until after the war.