<P> Two enlisted men from Mikuma were rescued from a life raft on 9 June by USS Trout and brought to Pearl Harbor . After receiving medical care, at least one of these sailors cooperated during interrogation and provided intelligence . Another 35 crewmen from Hiryū were taken from a lifeboat by USS Ballard on 19 June after being spotted by an American search plane . They were brought to Midway and then transferred to Pearl Harbor on USS Sirius . </P> <P> The Battle of Midway has often been called "the turning point of the Pacific". It was the Allies' first major naval victory against the Japanese, won despite the Japanese Navy having more forces and experience than its American counterpart . Had Japan won the battle as thoroughly as the U.S. did, it might have been able to conquer Midway Island . Saratoga would have been the only American carrier in the Pacific, with no new ones being completed before the end of 1942 . While the U.S. would probably not have sought peace with Japan as Yamamoto hoped, his country might have revived Operation FS to invade and occupy Fiji and Samoa; attacked Australia, Alaska, and Ceylon; or even attempted to conquer Hawaii . </P> <P> Although the Japanese continued to try to secure more territory, and the U.S. did not move from a state of naval parity to one of supremacy until after several more months of hard combat, Midway allowed the Allies to switch to the strategic initiative, paving the way for the landings on Guadalcanal and the prolonged attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign . Midway allowed this to occur before the first of the new Essex - class fleet carriers became available at the end of 1942 . The Guadalcanal Campaign is also regarded by some as a turning point in the Pacific War . </P> <P> Some authors have stated that heavy losses in carriers and veteran aircrews at Midway permanently weakened the Imperial Japanese Navy . Parshall and Tully have stated that the heavy losses in veteran aircrew (110, just under 25% of the aircrew embarked on the four carriers) were not crippling to the Japanese naval air corps as a whole; the Japanese navy had 2,000 carrier - qualified aircrew at the start of the Pacific war . The loss of four large fleet carriers and over 40% of the carriers' highly trained aircraft mechanics and technicians, plus the essential flight - deck crews and armorers, and the loss of organizational knowledge embodied in such highly trained crews, were still heavy blows to the Japanese carrier fleet . A few months after Midway, the JNAF sustained similar casualty rates in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, and it was these battles, combined with the constant attrition of veterans during the Solomons campaign, which were the catalyst for the sharp downward spiral in operational capability . </P>

The battle of midway signaled to the american military that
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