<P> In the Battle of Midway, the Japanese split their fleet, sending much of their force and a feint toward Alaska . The Americans realized Alaska was not the main target, and desperately concentrated its resources to defend Midway . Japan had 272 warplanes operating from four carriers; the U.S. had 348 of which 115 were AAF land - based and the rest flew from three carriers . In an extraordinarily close battle, the Japanese suddenly lost their four main aircraft carriers, and were forced to return home . They never again launched a major offensive in the Pacific . </P> <P> The Japanese had built a major air base at on the island of Rabaul, but had difficulty keeping it supplied . American naval and Marine aviation made Rabaul a frequent bombing target . </P> <P> A Japanese airfield was spotted under construction at Guadalcanal . The Americans made an amphibious landing in August 1942 to seize it, sent in the Cactus Air Force and started to reverse the tide of Japanese conquests . As a result, Japanese and Allied forces both occupied various parts of Guadalcanal . Over the following six months, both sides fed resources into an escalating battle of attrition on the island, at sea, and in the sky, with eventual victory going to the Americans in February 1943 . It was a campaign the Japanese could ill afford . A majority of Japanese aircraft from the entire South Pacific area was drained into the Japanese defence of Guadalcanal . Japanese logistics, as happened time and again, failed; only 20% of the supplies dispatched from Rabaul to Guadalcanal ever reached there . </P> <P> After 1942, the United States made a massive effort to build up its aviation forces in the Pacific, and began island - hopping to push its airfields closer and closer to Tokyo . Meanwhile, the Japanese were unable to upgrade their aircraft, and they fell further and further behind in numbers of aircraft carriers . The forward island bases were very hard to supply--often only submarines could get through--and the Japanese forces worked without replacements or rest, and often with inadequate food and medicine . Their morale and performance steadily declined . Starvation became an issue in many bases . </P>

The army believed that air power should play which role(s) in world war ii