The Battle of Midway (Pivotal Moments in American History) (65 page)

38
. On March 18, FDR wrote Churchill: “Australia must be held and, as I telegraphed you, we are willing to do that. India must be held and you must do that.” FDR to Churchill, March 18, 1942, in
Roosevelt and Churchill: Their Secret Wartime Correspondence
, ed. Francis Loewenheim et al. (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1975), 268–69.

39
. King to Leary, Feb. 12, 1942, King Papers, NHHC, Series I, box 1; King to FDR, Feb. 12, 1942, King Papers, NHHC, Series I, box 1. See also John Costello,
The Pacific War, 1941–1945
(New York: Rawson, Wade, 1981; reprint New York: Harper Perennial, 2002), 203. Nimitz had suggested Pye for the job, but FDR vetoed the idea.

40
. King to Leary and Leary to King, Feb. 17, 1942, King Papers, NHHC, Series I, box 1.

41
. Nimitz’s remarks about securing Australia are in a “Briefed Estimate of the Situation,” Feb. 5, 1942, Nimitz Papers, NHHC, box 8:233; Nimitz’s reply to King’s proposal to maintain two carriers in the south is Nimitz to King, Feb. 25, 1942, and King’s reply dated Feb. 26, both in Nimitz Papers, NHHC, box 8:256, 545.

42
. Running Summary, Feb. 26, 1942, Nimitz Papers, NHHC, box 8:246.

43
. King to Nimitz, and Brown to Nimitz, both Feb. 26, 1942, Nimitz Papers, NHHC, 8:242, 244, 255.

44
. Lundstrom,
First Team
, 124–27.

45
. Running Summary, Feb. 23 and 25, 1942, Nimitz Papers, NHHC, box 8:243–44, 245; Ludlum,
They Turned the War Around
, 37–38; Morison,
Rising Sun
, 387–89; Lundstrom,
First Team
, 131; Roosevelt to Churchill, March 17, 1942, in
Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence
, ed. Warren F. Kimball (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 1:415–16.

46
. Nimitz to King, March 23, 1942, Nimitz Papers, NHHC, box 8:548; Lundstrom,
Black Shoe Carrier Admiral
, 96; Running Summary, March 11, 1942, Nimitz Papers, NHHC, box 8:267. Captain James M. Steele replaced McCormick as the keeper of the Running Summary in April.

47
. Willmott,
Barrier and Javelin
, 74–76.

Chapter 5

1
. H. P. Willmott,
The Barrier and the Javelin: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies, February to June 1942
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1983), 15; John J. Stephan,
Hawaii under the Rising Sun: Japan’s Plans for Conquest after Pearl Harbor
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984), 124.

2
. H. P. Willmott,
Empires in the Balance: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies to April 1942
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982), 436.

3
. Stephan,
Hawaii under the Rising Sun
, 96.

4
. Sadao Asada,
From Mahan to Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006), 171–72, 246–50.

5
. Hiroyuki Agawa,
The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy
, trans. John Bester (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1979), 213, 225; Asada,
From Mahan to Pearl Harbor
, 250–52, 281.

6
. Jonathan B. Parshall and Anthony P. Tully,
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
(Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2005), 27.

7
. Prange interview of Watanabe Yasuji (Sept. 25, 1964), Prange Papers, UMD, box 17; Willmott,
Barrier and Javelin
, 43–44; Stephan,
Hawaii under the Rising Sun
, 107; Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 294; Matome Ugaki,
Fading Victory: The Diary of Admiral Matome Ugaki
, ed. Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, trans. Masataka Chi-haya (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991), 68 (diary entry of Jan. 5, 1942).

8
. Quoted in Willmott,
Barrier and Javelin
, 79; Prange interview of Watanabe (Feb. 3–4, 1966), Prange Papers, UMD, box 17.

9
. Paul S. Dull,
A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941–1945
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1978), 108–9.

10
. Mark R. Peattie,
Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909–1941
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001), 67–70.

11
. Dull,
Battle History
, 109–10.

12
. Donald MacIntyre,
Fighting Admiral: The Life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Somerville, G.C.B., G.B.E, D.S.O
(London: Evans Brothers, 1961), 179.

13
. Stephan,
Hawaii under the Rising Sun
, 485; Asada,
From Mahan to Pearl Harbor
, 184–86; Inoue Shigeyoshi, “A New Theory on the Armament Plan,” Jan. 1941, quoted in Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 224–25.

14
. Willmott,
Barrier and Javelin
, 61, 64–65; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 32.

15
. Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 294–95; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 32–37.

16
. Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 264; Stephan,
Hawaii under the Rising Sun
, 90–91. According to Lieutenant Commander Ishiguro Susumu, Yamaguchi’s communications officer, Yamaguchi was eager to attack again and was angry when Nagumo ignored him. Ishiguro interview, Goldstein Collection, Prange Papers, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh, box 21, folder 37. I am grateful to Jon Parshall for bringing this interview to my attention.

17
. Ugaki,
Fading Victory
, 62 (diary entry of Dec. 25, 1941); Yamamoto to Navy Minister Oikawa, Jan. 7, 1941, quoted in Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, eds.,
The Pearl Harbor Papers: Inside the Japanese Plans
(Washington, DC: Brassey’s 1993), 117.

18
. Ugaki,
Fading Victory
, 75 (diary entry of Jan. 14, 1942); Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 28.

19
. Stephan,
Hawaii under the Rising Sun
, 109–21; Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 33.

20
. Craig L. Symonds,
Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 206–7.

21
. Ibid.

22
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 51; Willmott,
Barrier and Javelin
,
chapter 2
.

23
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 48–51; Willmott,
Barrier and Javelin
, 81–82.

24
. Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 284; Hugh Bicheno,
Midway
(London: Cassel, 2001), 73–77.

25
. The substance of this argument comes from interviews of Miyo by Robert E. Barde (January, 1966), in Barde, “The Battle of Midway: A Study in Command” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, 1971), 32–33, and of Watanabe by Gordon Prange (Feb. 3–4, 1966 and Sept. 25, 1964), in Prange Papers, UMD, box 17. See also Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, 295–96; Willmott,
Barrier and Javelin
, 68–71; and Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya,
Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy’s Story
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1955), 82–85.

26
. Prange interviews of Watanabe (Feb. 3–4, 1966) and (Sept. 25, 1964), both in Prange Papers, UMD, box 17.

27
. Prange interview of Watanabe (Feb. 3–4, 1966), and Miyo (May 6, 1966), both in Prange Papers, UMD, box 17; Willmott,
Barrier and Javelin
, 72.

28
. Willmott,
Barrier and Javelin
, 76.

29
. Parshall and Tully,
Shattered Sword
, 37–38.

Chapter 6

1
. Theodore Taylor,
The Magnificent Mitscher
(New York: Norton, 1954; Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991), 20–21. Citations are to the Naval Institute Press edition.

2
. Ibid., 20–27; 1910
Lucky Bag
, USNA.

3
. Taylor,
Magnificent Mitscher
, 30; Paolo E. Coletta,
Bald Eagle: Admiral Marc A. Mitscher and U.S. Naval Aviation
(Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 1997), 18.

4
. Mitscher to Frances Mitscher, Aug. 17, 1917, Mitscher Papers, NHHC.

5
. Coletta,
Bald Eagle
, 16, 25–30; Taylor,
Magnificent Mitscher
, 63–66.

6
. Taylor,
Magnificent Mitscher
, 78.

7
. Mitscher to Frances Mitscher, Aug. 17, 1942, Mitscher Papers, NHHC; Bernard M. Stern (1974), 47, and Stephen Jurika (April 1, 1976), 1:492–3, both in U.S. Naval Institute Oral History Collection, USNA.

8
. The shipmate was Tookies Bright; the 18-year-old helmsman was Richard Nowatski. Both are quoted in Coletta,
Bald Eagle
, 91, 108. The exchange with Gee is in Taylor,
Magnificent Mitscher
, 110–11.

9
. Taylor,
Magnificent Mitscher
, 112.