The decisive battle in the Pacific theatre of World War II, the “Battle of Midway”, will be back on the big screen as big budget movie called “Midway”. This is not the first film about the battle, the first one was released in 1976 featuring stars such as Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Ed Nelson, James Shigeta, Christina Kokubo, and Edward Albert.

For the 2019 movie version of the battle, it will be Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, and Woody Harrelson. It is a big budget movie, with US$100 million allotted for its production and is directed by Roland Emmerich of “Independence Day.”

The Japanese Imperial Navy was to inflict another serious damage to the U.S. Naval Pacific Fleet after their surprise raid on Pearl Harbor, and capturing the Midway Islands will also further extend the Japanese defensive chain to almost over half of the Pacific Ocean and nearer to Pearl harbor.  The U.S. Navy aircraft carriers escaped the devastation of Pearl Harbor and are the greatest threat to the Japanese plans. It is hoped that destroying them off Midway will lead to the capitulation of the U.S.A. the Pacific War and the Japanese Empire will march on unopposed.

However, the Americans have already broken the codes of the Japanese communications and were able to decipher the planned attacks. It was to be a major naval battle involving carrier aircraft rather than battleships, the Japanese suffered heavy losses with the heavy carriers Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū all sunk and a big loss of experienced Japanese naval pilots and planes. The Americans suffered the loss of the USS Yorktown, which was also a big loss in terms of naval assets, but nevertheless they put a stop to eastward expansion of the Japanese in the Pacific and ruining Yamamoto’s plans.

Together with the campaign in Solomon Islands, the Midway was a turning point in the war. The Japanese were unable to replace the losses quickly and were put into a defensive, as the Americans and allies started clawing back the islands captured by the Empire until the surrender on August 15, 1945 and the formal signing of the surrender documents on September 4, 1945.

The movie is scheduled for release on November 8, 2019.