After completion of Operation MO the carriers were to rejoin the rest of the fleet and take part in the planned operations against Midway Island. As it was, Admiral Inouye still had the aircraft carriers Shoho, Shokaku and Zuikaku. The aircraft carrier Kaga (72 combat planes) was originally allocated to take part in the operation but with the advancement of the timetable she had to be omitted as she was in dockyard hands till late April 1942. Had the Doolittle raid not occurred there is the real possibility that the majority of the Japanese aircraft carriers may have been involved in Operation MO. “The generals and admirals had suffered a tremendous loss of face, and their angry over-reaction eventually brought a succession of strategic disasters.” Admiral Yamamoto regarded the raid as a mortifying personal defeat.” As a result of this first air raid on Japan the Midway operation took on greater importance and Admiral Shigeyoshi Inouye, Commander of the Fourth Fleet at Rabaul, was instructed that the Port Moresby operation was to take place in early May with the Midway operation planned for the following month. The army and navy had failed in their duty to safeguard the homeland and the Emperor from attack. The military value of this raid was minimal, “but its psychological effect on the Japanese was all that might have been desired. However, planning progressed slowly until 18 April when American B25 bombers, led by Lieutenant Colonel James H Doolittle, attacked targets in the Japanese Home Islands. After much haggling the two staffs agreed to go ahead with the Midway operation after the capture of Port Moresby. In essence Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was hoping to repeat Admiral Togo Heihachiro’s victory over the Russians at the Straits of Tsushima in 1905. By this action it was hoped that the American Fleet would be enticed “into an ambush where they could be annihilated by overwhelming numbers”. In early April 1942 the staff of the Combined Fleet had presented the Naval General Staff with a proposal for the invasion and capture of Midway Island. While the Japanese Naval General Staff were examining options for further operations the planning staff of the Japanese Combined Fleet were doing the same, though their objectives were different. USAAF B-25B bombers on board USS Hornet for the Doolittle Raid, April 1942.
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