JN-25 / AF
The broken code and the Midway water-trap that confirmed the target. A named operational object of Battle of Midway (4-7 June 1942).
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Scale28
Intensity70
Duration8
Tech shift72
Political impact68
Cultural memory74
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Are the scores a ranking of nations or armies?
No. Scores are browsing aids inside an era-bounded atlas — not live league tables of countries.
How many died?
About 3,000 Japanese and a few hundred Americans is the usual published band. The lopsidedness is the point -- and still a band.
Did codebreaking win the battle?
It placed the US fleet. Dive bombers and Japanese timing errors still had to convert the placement. Both are true.
What did Japan lose?
Four fleet carriers and most of their air groups -- the offensive core of the Pearl Harbor force.
Did it end the Pacific war?
No. Guadalcanal began in August 1942. Japan remained dangerous for years.
Who commanded?
Nimitz (Pacific Fleet), Fletcher and Spruance at sea; Yamamoto and Nagumo on the Japanese side; Rochefort at HYPO.
Three US carriers (one freshly patched) versus four Japanese fleet carriers plus a surface arm that never closed.
Land-based Midway air was a nuisance and a bait, not the killing force.
Systems
Kido Butai
Nagumo's carrier striking force -- four fleet carriers at Midway.
Chester W. Nimitz's command
Gambled three carriers on HYPO's read -- the quiet decisive admiral of the US story.
Isoroku Yamamoto's command
Planned a complex trap; lost the initiative he had seized in December.
Midway strike
1942-06-04-am: Japanese first wave on the atoll; US searches outbound.
Four carriers gone
Kido Butai's first team wrecked.
Meters
Geographic / demographic scale
28
Peak intensity
70
How long it defined a period
8
Tech or method shift
72
Borders, regimes, law, alliances
68
Film, school, ritual density
74
Hotspots
Japanese run
Dec 1941-May 1942: Pearl Harbor to Coral Sea. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
Intelligence race
Late May 1942: HYPO, AF, Nimitz's gamble. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
The day
4 June 1942: Five minutes that English books never tire of. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
Pursuit and Yorktown
5-7 June: Hiryu gone; Yorktown down. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
Solomons
After June: A long war with a new balance. Named as historical geography of Battle of Midway, not as a targeting list.
Materials
Chronology (4-7 June 1942)
Battle of Midway is bounded as 4-7 June 1942. 1942-05 opens the usual narrative (Coral Sea); 1942-08 closes it (Guadalcanal).
Theatre: Midway Atoll, central Pacific
Place is evidence. Midway Atoll, central Pacific is where Battle of Midway happened -- a map for readers, not a guide for repeating it.
Human-cost band
about 3,000 Japanese and about 300+ US dead, usual published band Keep the figure as a range. Spectacle integers are not a census.
Dive bomber
The aircraft type that decided 4 June -- named, not instructed. A material of the Battle of Midway vocabulary, dated to 4-7 June 1942.
Historical 1942 decks, not a modern carrier ORBAT or a strike-planning guide.
Air-group training time is the hidden force structure.