The big problem for the Japanese at Midway was that they only had 4 carriers. With 6 carriers, all of the the Japanese wouldn't have had to decide between prot

The big problem for the Japanese at Midway was that they only had 4 carriers. With 6 carriers, all of the the Japanese wouldn't have had to decide between protecting their carriers vs attacking US carriers vs attacking Midway. They could have done it all. Heck, even one more carrier, for a total of 5, would have significantly reduced the task-overload. That's why the original Japanese plan for Midway had 6 carriers. So, why didn't they follow the plan? The answer is the Battle of Coral Sea, a month earlier. While the US lost one carrier (Lexington) and almost lost Yorktown, one Japanese carrier was significantly damaged while another lost most of its aircrew. Japanese doctrine at the time didn't transfer pilots between carriers, so Coral Sea took two carriers from Midway. If the Japanese had transferred pilots from the damaged carrier to the carrier without an aircrew, the Japanese could have had 5 carriers. Five carriers would have likely resulted in a Japanese win at Midway. That said, the US would win the war in the Pacific as long as it sank a Japanese carrier for every 2-3 it lost.