The battle involved four Japanese and three American aircraft carriers. The Akagi two months before the Battle of Midway. Surprising the enemy as they approached Midway, the US inflicted devastating damage on the Japanese and changed the course of the war. Yet thanks to code breaking, the plan was uncovered, and the US prepared its own ambush. In the Battle of Midway, six months after Japan’s December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy hoped to inflict a final defeat on the US fleet by luring them into an ambush. Both are in the Central Pacific in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, of which Vulcan documented more than 500 square miles over several weeks.
The Kaga rests at 5,400 metres underwater, while the Akagi rests at 1,600 metres. Using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) fitted with sonar, the wrecks were located deep below the surface. The astonishing discoveries were made by the research vessel Petrel, owned and operated by Vulcan Inc, a company established by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Up until now, only one other ship sunk in the Battle of Midway, the American USS Yorktown, had been located. The Kaga is the first sunken Japanese aircraft carrier ever to be discovered. Just a couple of days later, the wreckage of the Akagi was also found. On 16 October 2019, one ship, the Kaga, was discovered after an intensive search. The carriers were among seven ships that went down during the Battle of Midway in June 1942, a decisive victory for the United States against Japan in the Pacific Theatre. But now, explorers have found two Japanese aircraft carriers sunk in battle during World War Two. They were thought to have been lost in the watery depths of the vast Pacific Ocean. A sonar image of the Akagi, sunk at Midway in 1942.
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