[applause] good morning. Thank you, chris. It is a pleasure to be here. When i was invited to speak about the battle of midway, i said, gosh, i am not a midway expert. They said, that is ok. We have the experts coming. What we want you to do is set the table. That is what im going to do, set the table on how we got to midway. I want to go through a few landmark things in terms of japans relations with the world 50 years prior to midway, then we will talk about based on my book the admirals some of the American Leadership that appears at midway, and finally, we will do a quick overview of Operational History of what goes on between pearl harbor and june 2, third, fourth, of 1942. So, sailing the seas toward midway. Lets start by talking about ay have put one too far lets start by talking about the relationship between japan and the United States. They are at the same parallels of latitude. The unitednce is states in terms of its Development Moves westward across the north american continent. During the late 19th century also moved westward, but what does that do . It put it on a collision course with china, and indeed japan and china have been adversaries for a long time. A great fleet was sent to capture japan. What happened . The divine wind, cozzi came up to destroy. The history is much different in the years after that, and china continues to interact with the west. Japan doesnt. Remainss its ports and closed until Matthew Perry opens japans ports in 1853. I would suggest to you that no country in the intervening last part of the 19th century really embraces the industrial ,evolution more so than japan and there is a huge change. , modelsilds a new army it after germany, builds a new navy, models it after Great Britain, and really steps for it onto the world stage. The first conflict occurs in 1894, the first sino japanese war. Everybody says japan is an upstart and cant take on china. Not only does japan take on china, but japan wins. Central to our story in world war ii is as part of that, the there is mysa clicker the island of formosa is in fact japanese territory after that treaty with china going ahead and ending the conflict. After the first sino japanese war, what happens . Japan moves into korea. Korea is a vassal state of japan at that point, and it puts japan on a collision course with russia. The russow about japanese war 19041905, japan started with a sneak attack on the russian fleet at port arthur, since 10 japanese destroyers with torpedoes. Very much a surprise attack, and the result of the war, including the great naval really lights is out as a power in the far east. Asan takes another step an a step as a power. Japan is an alley of the United States. There is a Japanese Naval squadron convoy ships in the mediterranean, but what does world war i really do in terms of the big story, particularly in terms of midway . After the treaty of versailles concludes the first world war, japan is the beneficiary of all of these islands that have been german territory, so the guamanas, except for and the marshals become japanese territory. Look at this line between hawaii and the philippines. Saidine states has we can defend the philippines. We can counter any kind of aggressor or harm towards the philippines, but now suddenly postworld war i, japan controls a large stretch of the Central Pacific. That happensng after world war i is the Washington Naval conference, 1921. Think in the aftermath of world war i that we have the league of nations. Japan joins the league of nations. The United States does not. Theres going to be a new era of peace. We will pass these naval treaties that limit capital ship construction. If we limit tonnage and capital ship construction, there will be peace. That does not happen. Let me suggest as we do these to aarks as japan grows world power, the very fact the Washington Naval conference in 1921 includes the United States, evenbritain, and japan though the United States and navalbritain have superiority with the japan, the very fact japan is on the world stage with those other two powers is pretty significant. In the meantime, what has been happening in china . I 1927, i would suggest china is really in chaos. Solidifiedina has some emerging National Government in china. Now there is certainly communist opposition, even that early, but what happens with that as china solidifies some of that National Government and extends power andhward into manchuria brings that under the chinese overall government, that points china on even more of a collision course with japan. About that time, 1931, another marker, there is something called the manchurian incident. A minorally kind of thing, an explosion on a railway that does not really disrupt the islway 11 japan says china the aggressor and we have to move into manchuria and sees manchuria. Happens. Hat they also send troops to occupy parts of shanghai. Now, china, a member of the league of nations that it is, says we will appeal to the league. Japan was also a member of the league of nations and says i think we will just withdraw from the league, so that does not do much in terms of going ahead and solving the crisis. Interesting footnote to that. Switch,of a bait and the International Community and the world is focused on what is happening in shanghai, and japan goes back, maybe we will withdraw, maybe we wont withdraw. In the meantime, they are using all of their powers to solidify control over manchuria. Withdraw fromey shanghai, but while the world has been watching shanghai, they solidify control over manchuria. Moving on, 1937, sometimes we think of world war ii beginning in 1939 in europe or 1941 in pearl harbor, but world war ii and the pacific really does begin in 1937 when japan full out decides to invade china. , one, there is an incident , butose who fired first japan uses it to go ahead and from manchuriave into the rest of northeastern china, and at the same time, this. Opposes there is a major war that goes on between china and japan through beginning in 1937, and really through the next four years up and when things break in with United States i 1941. The United States gets involved in the middle of this with an involving a gunboat in the port their, and japanese the gunboat, stray fit, kill some americans, kill some journalists, and chief of staff of the American Navy, chief of Naval Operations, basically advises Franklin Roosevelt that we have to do something about this and take some action, send them fleet out, work with Great Britain to put up a quarantine. That advice, i would not say it falls on deaf ears because roosevelt is responsive to that, but he is still fighting the depression, and Great Britain is occupied with things that are going on in europe, so there is just not the support. Poll in january 1938 of the American Public say we dont have any business at all being in the far east, and america really turns a cold doing,r to when japan is and even though china is sort of a nominal ally of the United States at that particular point, American Interest in terms of doing anything major there. Moving on very quickly, the war starts in europe. The french fall in may 1940. The government that still controls French Indochina says japan, you want to move some troops in here and set up some bases and stuff . Fine. Even as late as december 1940 2, 1 of the things roosevelt is asking the japanese, you have , withgreement with france folks in French Indochina, why are you moving more and more troops there . Please tell us about that. Of course japan doesnt respond inthat, so what has happened july 1941 is that roosevelt imposes an oil embargo with Great Britain and the , a three embargo of japanese oil and Raw Materials that are coming from the Dutch East Indies and that part of indochina. That, roosevelt freezes japanese assets in the United States, recalls Douglas Macarthur to active duty in the philippines, and basically begins to tear up in terms of a war footing. That me suggest to you that while that embargo was imposed as a way to curtail and hamstring japans operations, in some respects it made them even more determined to work on a fairly short time schedule to move into Southeast Asia and come up with some level of those and Natural Resources that they needed historically. And do a quicks overview of the players. Im going to leave characterizations of the admirals to some of my colleagues and experts here, but i do want to run through a few characterizations of the americans involved. , who at the time of the battle of midway is chief of Naval Operations and commander of the u. S. Fleet, i would suggest to you that admiral king is the overlooked strategist of world war ii. Says to theally joint chiefs, all right, we have an ally plan and a u. S. Plan of germany first, but admiral king very much to his credit is also focused on the pacific. He is also focused on winning a two ocean war and pouring resources into the pacific. And quite frankly sitting in this building, i would suggest to you that Douglas Macarthur is one of the beneficiaries of that because if king had not convinced the joint chiefs and the joint the joint chiefs and the joint chiefs convinced roosevelt to put resources into the pacific, again, we may not have been meeting the japanese as we ended up doing. King has two things he develops over his career. He graduates from annapolis in 1901. He has been born on the banks of lake erie in 1878. But as he goes through his naval career, he focuses on submarines and aircraft. Hes very much a brown shoe admiral coming out of that Aviation Wing of the American Navy. He had a really fiery temper. I think like a lot of other folks i can mention, theres really no middleground. He either had supporters, or he has said tractors. He had five daughters and a son. One of his daughters famously said, daddy, well, hes the most eventempered person i know. Hes always in a rage. [laughter] and i think that probably was admiral king. Chester was very much different in personality. Hes someone that really leads by example. He grew up in fredericksburg, texas, german family. Is he wanted to go to west point. But he went off to annapolis. Buzz is there were so many cavalry officers in texas at that point who had sons they wanted to send to west point. They said youre never going to , get into westpoint, but ive got this opening in annapolis. What if you go there . So he agreed to go there, wrote back to his parents who were german immigrants and said, well, im supposed to take a foreign language, what do you recommend . And they said, well, take english, son, i think thatll put you in good stead. [laughter] he is somebody that goes through, interestingly enough hes in charge of building the Submarine Base in the 1920s. He pioneers naval rotc at berkeley in the late 1920s, goes on and commands the augusta, the cruiser that is the flagship of the agsiatic fleet at that particular point in the 30s, and then becomes chief of the bureau of navigation, which is essentially the Navy Personnel department. 1941, he has a good idea of the strengths and witnesses weaknesses of the people hes going to send in harms way on december 7th. Lets talk about bill haulsy. He was a fighter and a scrapper. Hes the one that channeled his energy into athletics. He was voted senior of the year , the shipman who did the most to promote athletics. He goes onto serve some time on the great white fleet on , battleships. But he is first and foremost a destroyer man. At a fairly advanced age at the time, at hes going to get into 50, carrier aviation. King, by the way, has been a captain of the lexington, and he is sort of, i would say that he mentors halsey a little bit. He says, you want to command a carrier, this is what you need to do good go to pensacola need to do. Go to pensacola and take flight instructions. Veterans thank those and families that stood up, because the most awarding thing to me in terms of my writing about world war ii has really been the stories of some of these men and some of others that have come to me. The nephew of halseys Flight Instructor from the 1930s, emailed me the story, didnt make it into the book. Its one of those things it would be nice if it was there, of halsey coming down after one of his solo trips, jumping out of the airplane, remember he is a navy captain of about 50, and this the instructor is probably some young lieutenant. And halsey jumps out of the plane so excited and he says captain why are you so excited . , and he slaps him on the back, and he said, well, son i got my prescription glasses and for the first time i can see the panel. [laughter] walter yes, the other story , that reallyugh says a lot about him is when he was on the bridge of one of the carriers and at one point a young junior officer looked down at the compass and kind of pondered a course change and kind of wondered out loud where the sob was taking us now. And out of the shadows steps halsey with a finger and basically saying not so old, not so old. [laughter] walter so halsey had a sense of humor. A much different personality all , of those folks. Lets talk about Frank Fletcher a little bit. He graduates in 1906. Thats a year behind nimisz. He actually wins the honor of he wins the medal of honor office there crews 1914 theres a little expedition to veracruz. Fletcher wins a medal of honor for that. And he goes on and i would , suggest to you that he is really the epitome of battleship admirals. Hes somebody who goes and is able to command destroyers, battleships, cruisers by the time of pearl harbor hes in charge of the scouting force. And somehow along the way i think fletcher gets a little bit of a bad rap. I recommend to you a book by john lum strm called black shoe carrier admiral i think that came out about ten years ago, and i think it is really an overdue and balanced presentation in terms of fletcher and his importance to really the entire American Navy particularly in the months , leading up to midway. Well, lets say a few things about raymond spruance. What ive been able to fiend find out, it really was how he signed his letters. Thats not what would raymond would have said. And i think that characterization of his name says something and way he would want it characterized, says something about his meticulousness. He and halsey, believe it or not, become great friends. Halsey is four years his senior, but their wives, their families, theyre both destroyer men, they pal around together, yet theyre polar opposites. Halsey is rough and gruff. One junior officer said when halsey later on in the war had command of the fleet, we never knew what we were going to do. Spruance is the exact opposite. Very meticulous, crossing every t, yet somehow these two polar opposites become great friends. And of course world war ii goes on, theyre going to alternate command of the fleets. We could not be in norfolk without talking about Douglas Macarthur. He is very much a 19thcentury man. Ingraduates from west point 1903. He will go on to command in the Rainbow Division during world war ii. Superintendent of west point. Becomes chief of staff of the army under hoover, president hoover, in 1930. And then retires from the army, make it long story short ends up , in the philippines. Hes an advisor. And by the fall of 1941 hes basically convinced the American LeadershipWar Department that he can in fact defend the entire archipelago of the philippines. So that really brings us to the summer of 1941. To december 7, 1941. And i think something thats important, heres nimitz taking command of the pacific fleet. Right after pearl harbor, roosevelt said to cain tell , king, tell nimitz to go out there and stay there until the war is won. And nimitz did. He takes a train across the country. Hes kind of in shock, he ends up then flying from the west coast to pearl harbor. And he assumes command on the ling on december 31st of 1941. And he later joked that he took command on a submarine because it was the only ship that would have survived the attack. Well, that was his sense of humor, obviously it wasnt quite that bad. But what nimitz did recognize, and i think whats important to the upcoming battles, certainly at midway he recognized that , despite the horrific loss of american lives and treasure, there were really three things where it could have been an awful lot worse. The carriers were not important. Where would we be with midway if the carriers or some of the carriers had been sunk at pearl harbor . The second thing is the summary submarine forces he eludes to really is generally intact. Its going to take the attack to the enemy very, very quickly. And the third thing, and admiral negumo is going to come under criticism for not launching a third attack wave, or the second wave not being focused on the pearl harbor infrastructure, but if the oil tanks, if the dry is if thats, infrastructure had been destroyed on december 7th, 1941 then pacific would have perhaps been pushed back it the west coast. No one would have been able to turn around to york town in three days and send it back out to sea