YAMAGUCHI

Rear Admiral Yamaguchi | Public Domain Image

On the Hiryu bridge northwest of Midway, an increasingly worried Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi considered the situation. A US Pacific Fleet PBY patrol scout had been sighted over the carrier Striking Force just after 0600 and the Japanese radio operators had intercepted a radio transmission. The PBY had to have come from Midway, 140 miles away. The attack of torpedo planes and B-26s on the carriers of the Striking Force at 0710 also had clearly come from Midway. To be over the Japanese fleet at 0710 meant they had taken off immediately at 0600 in response to the PBY report. That meant the Americans had prepared for the attack the previous day, or even earlier. Furthermore, B-26s normally would not be stationed on Midway; they would have been flown in from Pearl Harbor, indicating an even earlier preparation. The secrecy of the Japanese mission clearly had been compromised at least several days before, and the Americans had had time to prepare their defenses and plan a counterattack.

There had been no positive confirmation that the American carriers were still in Pearl Harbor. If the Americans had several days to prepare, they could have deployed their carriers to be able to attack the Striking Force before the Japanese submarines were in position off Pearl Harbor to detect their movements. With the mission’s secrecy blown and the location of the American carriers unknown, would the Americans not throw everything they had against the Japanese, including carriers? The American carriers had been constantly on the move, making raids against the Gilberts, Marshalls, Marcus, Rabaul, New Guinea, and even Tokyo. Why did Admiral Yamamoto think they now would be tied up at their piers in Pearl Harbor and their sailors lolling on Waikiki Beach?

Then came the message from the Tone scout aircraft at 0728: ten enemy ships sighted, 100 miles away. Ship types, undisclosed. Vice Admiral Nagumo on Akagi, desperate to know if there was a carrier in the force of ten ships, sent a frantic message to the scout to identify ship types. On the Hiryu bridge, Yamaguchi is now distraught. The Japanese don’t know where the American carriers are, but they know their mission is compromised. Why would there not be carriers in an American force of ten ships? Yamaguchi recommended they launch an immediate attack, but there was nothing from Nagumo.

YAMAGUCHI

ACHESON

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NAGUMO