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Historic Schemes that Backfired in Catastrophic Fashion

Khalid Elhassan April 30, 2021 36 min

Battleship USS West Virginia sunk and burning at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, with the battleship USS Tennessee in the background. History on the Net

22. The Unluckiest Five Minutes in Japanese History

At 10:25 AM, June 4^th, 1942, Japan was mistress of the Pacific. She had the world’s most powerful naval aviation force, had been running roughshod over her enemies while marching from victory to victory, and was in the driver’s seat, dictating the terms of World War II in the Pacific Theater. By 10:30 AM, Japan had effectively lost WWII. The Japanese had experienced what was probably the unluckiest five minutes ever experienced by any country in the history of warfare.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan went on a rampage and won a series of stunning victories. However, Japan’s war strategy was to win a battle of annihilation, like Tsushima, then negotiate a favorable peace. Pearl Harbor was a success, but no Tsushima. So the Japanese planned an invasion of Midway Island to lure what was left of the US Navy into showing up for a climactic showdown. Assuming that the US Navy had only one or two aircraft carriers in the Pacific, the Japanese launched their operation with four fleet carriers. It backfired, however, because American code breakers had cracked Japan’s secret codes and knew of the upcoming attack.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.