Midway Inquest

The subtitle of the book is Why the Japanese Lost the Battle of Midway. It is a very, very detailed examination of the battle, why the Japanese lost it, and what would have happened if they had actually won the battle. This is the type of book that is strictly for those who want to go into very minute detail about what happened in the battle. For other people, the book could prove boring.

The basic concept is that, with the destruction of four of their carriers, the Japanese air war capability was severely damaged, so much so that it had a major effect on the war. From this point on the Japanese forces were almost entirely on the defensive and, bit by bit, they were pushed back and back, unable to protect their ships and men with adequate air power.

The book does go into the things that led up to the war, and discusses the Rape of Nanking, holding that about 150,000 had been killed by the Japanese in the attack.

The Battle of Midway was meant, again, to be “the decisive sea battle” that would be fought by the Japanese, destroying the American ability to make war at sea. It seems that almost every battle they fought was considered to be “the decisive battle”, whether it was on land or on sea. The author does speculate on what would have happened if the U.S. had lost the battle, which was something that was quite possible, and he says that the U.S. still would have won the war, but it would have taken perhaps a year or two more and could have led to the use of some twenty atomic bombs on Japan. Such a scenario would also have had Russia invade Japan and take control of its northern islands, probably leading to a split Japan like German was split after the war.

The main cause for the Japanese loss at Midway, the author says, was a failure of communications between elements of the Japanese forces. He goes into considerable detail about what those failures were and why they happened.

The author discusses the Japanese carrier pilots, and how they had a rather limited number of really good ones at the start of the war. Attrition reduced this number, and new pilots simply did not have the training that the original ones did. This also had an effect on the Japanese ability to wage war. (Eventually, pilots had almost no training at all and were used for kamikaze missions almost entirely.)

The author notes that, if the U.S. had lost the battle of Midway, it is possible that the Japanese would have attacked Hawaii again. It is doubtful that they would have taken over the islands, though.

So, in summary, the book is very well done but is so filled with details that he casual reader would find it overwhelming.

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