<Ul> <Li> Kantokuen </Li> <Li> Manchuria (1945) </Li> <Li> Mutanchiang </Li> <Li> Sakhalin Island </Li> <Li> Kuril Islands </Li> <Li> Shumshu </Li> </Ul> <Li> Manchuria (1945) </Li> <P> The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II which occurred between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea . The United States Navy under Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable . Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare ." </P> <P> The Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere . The Japanese hoped another demoralizing defeat would force the U.S. to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific . Luring the American aircraft carriers into a trap and occupying Midway was part of an overall "barrier" strategy to extend Japan's defensive perimeter, in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo . This operation was also considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii itself . </P>

Who was fighting in the battle of midway