United States Navy in World War II was "sunk" at Pearl Harbor. It is correct to say that American industrial might was a deciding factor in World War II, and Admiral Yamamoto knew that a prolonged war for Japan was a losing war. The Battle of Midway, together with the Guadalcanal campaign, marked the turning point in the Pacific. Between June 4–7, 1942, the United States Navy decisively defeated a Japanese naval force that had sought to lure the U.S. carrier fleet into a trap at Midway Atoll. The Japanese fleet lost four aircraft carriers to the U.S. Navy's one American carrier and a destroyer. After Midway,
Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō striking force, "Hōshō" missed the major portion of the battle in which Nagumo's four fleet carriers were ambushed and fatally damaged by US carrier aircraft on 4 June. The next day, "Hōshō" aircraft helped guide the remnants of Nagumo's force to a rendezvous with the Main Body. Around the same time, one of "Hōshō's" aircraft, crewed by pilot Shigeo Nakamura and observer Kiyoshi Ōniwa, discovered the burning, sinking . Photographs of the abandoned carrier taken by Ōniwa have been described as "among the most dramatic of the war in the Pacific". With the battle lost, a significant strategic defeat for