This vastly, vastly oversells the stakes of Midway. Japan lost before the war ever began[1]. By the end of the war the US produced 17 fleet carriers, 9 light ca

This vastly, vastly oversells the stakes of Midway. Japan lost before the war ever began[1]. By the end of the war the US produced 17 fleet carriers, 9 light carriers, and 76 escort carriers. US strength at Midway was 3 fleet carriers. By the end of 1945 the US would still have built several new Navies as well as the atomic bomb. Japan was struggling to finish China on their side of the Pacific, their armed forces would be totally incapable of securing the sea lanes to the US let alone land such a massive invasion force as to sweep across the whole continent. The Japanese war plan was strategically inept from the outset - hit the US really hard, then sue for peace from a position of strength. But even if they got the carriers at Pearl Harbor, it was only a matter of time before US industrial output buried them and they failed to account for an enemy committed to total war. The turning point happened at Midway but the specific time and place don't really matter - it was inevitable. For Japan to win the war they would have had to walk an improbable golden path from victory to decisive victory while suffering no irreplaceable losses. By the way, Germany displayed similar strategic ineptitude. Even if Germany won the Battle of Britain, they would not have been able to supply any invasion force they managed to land on Britain. They had no surface fleet, and they were staring down the largest navy in the world! All the Royal Navy needs to do is contest the Channel for a critical week or two and you've just lost your entire invasion force. As it happens they lost the BoB. Unable to finish the war against a globe-spanning empire, they proceeded to send their entire army into the USSR... ...and while US lend-lease certainly helped, the Soviet counteroffensive at the end of 1941 already inflicted such damage on the Wehrmacht that they started suffering shortages of men and equipment. The unsuccessful German offensive in 1942, Case Blue, was more limited in scope than Barbarossa because of these shortages - attacking in the southern USSR rather than the entire front as in 1941. Case Blue started the same month as the Battle of Midway - the outcome of the two could hardly be linked. With or without lend-lease, by end of '42 they are knee-deep in Russia with no prospect of further advance, while Britain blockades them on the other side. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ag2x3CS9M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ag2x3CS9M