On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes and submarines attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor. This event single-handedly took the United States from its then-neutral position in World War II to a fighting member of the “Allied Powers.” Pearl Harbor was the first in a long series of clashes between the United States and Japan in an attempt to gain control of the Pacific. Unlike the “War in Europe,” the Pacific strategy was dominated by naval and air battles, with the occasional land-based “Island Hopping” campaign. Therefore, one of the most important factors in the war in the Pacific was the size of the fleet: the more ships a country could send to war, the better. Pearl Harbor was the Japanese's way of trying to deal with the huge U.S. Pacific Fleet. However, Pearl Harbor was not the turning point of the war. After December 7, the United States began working on numerous technological developments that would ultimately aid them in one of the most important battles of World War II, the largest naval engagement of the war, the Battle of Midway. The battle, which took place from 4 to 7 June 1942, is widely considered the turning point of the Pacific Theater (James & Wells). Through the desire for post-Pearl Harbor "revenge" and various technological advantages including code breaking and radar, the United States was able to outwit the Japanese at Midway and ultimately win the battle, ultimately leading to victory in the Pacific. midway between Pearl Harbor and Midway the United States made progress with various technological and military advantages. One of the most important was the attempt to crack the code of Commander Joseph J. Rochefort Jr. “Most of the United States' information [on Japan] came from Rochefort. A... middle of the paper... while the United States lost only 1, the USS Yorktown, already heavily damaged from previous conflicts in the Coral Sea. If the United States had lost at Midway, the Japanese would have achieved their objective and finished what Pearl Harbor had started by permanently crippling the U.S. Navy. In a preface taken from an excerpt by Japanese aviator Fushida Mituso (who famously shouted “Tora, tora, tora”) the Japanese loss at Midway did the exact opposite of crippling the Navy. “During the next two years, while Japanese shipyards launched six new heavy transports, the Americans produced 17” (Mituso). of Midway, the turning point of the Theater would not have been won if it had not been for the various technological advantages and the desire for revenge of Pearl Harbor.