one point that often gets lost is that after 1 year of war, at the end of 1942, the IJN and Allied fleets had lost about the same number, types and tonnage of warships.
In dec. 42, the USN had only 1 operational carrier in the Pacific, the old U.S.S. Saratoga. The RN detached one of their carriers to the Solomons Islands in case the IJN tried something.
The big difference is that the USN had replaced all their losses by mid-43 and just kept on expanding the fleet while Japan struggled for the end of the war just to replace their losses.
Japan could never win a war of attrition with the U.S.. Even if Midway had turned out to be a IJN victory with all 3 american carriers lost, the U.S. would still have won the war.
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