What They Didn't Teach In Schools This Week

This week, 4–7 June, marks the anniversary of the Battle of Midway in 1942, one of the most decisive naval victories in world history and the pivotal turning point of the Pacific War. In a single morning, the United States Navy sent four powerful Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū, and Sōryū, blazing to the bottom of the Pacific. These were the very same carriers that had savagely attacked Darwin just months earlier.

On 19 February 1942, these four Japanese carriers unleashed 188 aircraft, dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighters, on an unprepared Australian city. In a single morning of terror, they murdered 235 people and wounded another 300 to 400, many of them civilians. Darwin was left in ruins: ships sunk, aircraft destroyed, and infrastructure shattered.

It was Australia's Pearl Harbor, a brutal reminder that the war had reached our doorstep and a frightening example of the power of Japanese imperial forces. At Midway all four of those Japanese aircraft carriers that so savagely attacked Darwin were sunk, thousands of their experienced crews killed and their aircraft destroyed.

Although the Australian Navy was not involved at Midway, Australian forces had played a vital role a month earlier during the desperate Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, often called the Battle for Australia, where the Australian cruisers HMAS Australia and HMAS Hobart stood shoulder-to-shoulder with American forces. Together, they fought with extraordinary courage, damaging the Japanese carrier Shōkaku and depriving the enemy of Zuikaku's air group for the coming fight. The Battle of the Coral Sea cost 715 American lives but helped blunt Japan's thrust toward Port Moresby. Japanese losses were heavy: over 1,000 dead and critical damage to their carrier strength.

By the time the Japanese fleet approached Midway, it was already weakened, yet still powerful, outnumbering the Americans. Yet the real miracle was American intelligence. U.S. codebreakers had cracked Japanese plans, allowing Admiral Chester Nimitz to ambush a vastly superior force with just three carriers: Enterprise, Hornet, and the hastily repaired Yorktown. On 4 June, American dive bombers struck with devastating precision. In minutes, three Japanese carriers were ablaze. The fourth, Hiryū, was sunk later that day. Japan lost not only its carriers but also hundreds of irreplaceable veteran pilots. American losses were painful; Yorktown eventually sank, but the imbalance of naval power was shattered.

The strategic importance of Midway for Australia cannot be overstated. Before the battle, Japan enjoyed naval superiority and dictated the pace of the war across the Pacific. A Japanese victory at Midway would have allowed planes from their carriers to bomb Australian cities at will. What happened at Darwin could have happened to every Australian city. But after Midway, never again would our cities live in fear of a mass carrier strike like Darwin's. The shadow of invasion, real and terrifying in 1942, was lifted. The barbed wire and fortification of our beaches, such as Bondi, Manly, Bronte and Cronulla, would become redundant. And anyone wondering what a Japanese occupation might have looked like should read about the Rape of Nanking.

Midway broke the back of Japanese offensive power. Historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." From that moment, Japan shifted to defence while the Allies seized the initiative. Without Midway, the Pacific War could have dragged on far longer, with unimaginable costs for Australia.

Yet even after Midway, the war was far from over. The Japanese still had to be stopped on the Kokoda Track. Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the brutal island-hopping campaign still lay ahead. More blood, more tears, and more heroic sacrifice would be required. But the tide had irrevocably turned. America's industrial might, combined with the courage displayed at Midway, ensured ultimate victory.

The vital role of American leadership, intelligence, and raw fighting spirit is too often minimised today in favour of the anti-American sentiment that has infected much of the modern left. Yet the truth is clear: the United States Navy, standing tall in our darkest hours, saved not only itself but Australia from catastrophe.

Australians must never forget what America did for us at the Battle of the Coral Sea, at Midway, and across the Pacific. Their extraordinary courage, skill, and sacrifice turned the course of history. God bless America.

Yet sadly, there will hardly be an Australian school where this history was properly remembered this week. Let's hope a change of government in Australia will lead to a complete rewrite of our national curriculum so that the enormous debt Australia owes the United States for its fight at the Battle of the Coral Sea and its subsequent victory at Midway is never forgotten.

“They had no right to win. Yet they did, and in doing so they changed the course of a war … Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit  — a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor —  that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory..”
― Walter Lord