Pearl Harbor, Midway and the American POWs of Japan

This year is the 78th anniversary of the "date that will live in infamy" -- December 7, 1941.

Few know that Japan bombed not only Pearl Harbor that day, but also the U.S. territories of The Philippine Islands, Wake, Midway, Guam, and Howland Island, as well as Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai, Malaya, and Singapore.

The June 1942 Battle of Midway has been recently in the news as a new film has come out and two of the sunken Japanese aircraft carriers have been found. I have seen the movie and it is not as bad as many have said. It does its job and shows the incredible bravery of the young men who took to the seas and skies to fight the Japanese onslaught. However, it is helpful to know the history, and the dialogue is horrid. Here is a Smithsonian article comparing the various Midway movies,

The film correctly depicts the capture and murder of one American airman. There were actually three, maybe four POWs who were held by the Japan's Imperial Navy from this battle. Three were from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) and executed aboard the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Makigumo. After a brutal interrogation, they were bound with ropes, tied to weighted fuel cans, and then thrown overboard to drown. The Makigumo hit a mine off Guadalcanal in 1943 and sank. One POW, Ensign Osmus was from the USS Yorktown and captured by the Arashi. He was thrown overboard, but managed to grab the chain railing. A fire axe was then employed to complete the execution.

Frank W. O'Flaherty

Bruno Peter Gaido

John Cady Lough

Wesley Frank Osmus

The above link to the POWs' "Find a Grave" site

Please visit and add a flower of remembrance

Battle of Midway, June 1942

Midway Atoll

June 4-7 is the 71st anniversary of the Battle of Midway. It is was a dramatic victory for the United States following a series of humiliating defeats in the early months of the Pacific War. The seminal naval battle showed Japan that the Americans were not push-overs.

Victory at Midway followed the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 7-8, 1942) where the U.S. Navy had established an operational advantage over Japan. The U.S. showed it could get forces quickly out to the Pacific and could weaken Imperial Japan's Pacific offense. As you can imagine, the former achievement would haunt the American POWs of Japan abandoned on The Philippines.

After the Battle of Midway, Tokyo understood that the war was to be long and difficult. The U.S. military had not been crippled by the bombing of Pearl Harbor or by the fall of the Philippines. The Americans proved tenacious and lucky.

Japan thought it could eliminate the U.S. Pacific Fleet and secure an important base mid-way in the Pacific. They believed that victory would lead to a negotiated peace with the U.S. and a quick end to the war. They were wrong.

If you are interested in learning more about the Battle of Midway and its significance, there is a new anthology published this month of memoirs, articles, excerpts from other books, and relevant government documents to help readers understand what happened and explain why the battle was so significant to the naval service. The Battle of Midway: The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy’s Greatest Victory (June 2013) focuses on events leading up to the battle and the battle itself, with a separate section examining how others have interpreted the battle's engagements.

The author is Thomas C. Hone, a former senior executive in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and a former member of the faculty of the Naval War College with a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.

Two of the most respected and read books on the Battle of Midway are Gordon W. Prange's Miracle at Midway (1982) and Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully's Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway (2005) that uses recently translated Japanese sources.

Click on the books to order or learn more.