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I've often wondered about that, particularly the scout plane.

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This makes it difficult to contradict but accounts of the same events by different people can vary considerably. There might also be a certain amount of face-saving involved. Without reading the book I really don't see how it can be proven one way or the other unless new facts have come to light. I think this is very unlikely now.

Thanks. Looks interesting. I'll read it later when I have more time.

I read Jonathan B. Parshall's account from dcunning's link & this should be an interesting book. It's very well presented & explains Japanese Navy operating procedures I was unaware of until now. However, most of it is pure supposition & based on hypothesis. Mitsuo Fuchida was there & being the leader of the strike force that attacked Pearl Harbor, a senior officer in the Japanese Navy & experienced pilot he would obviously be familiar with these procedures which he perhaps assumed the reader would also know when writing his accounts. Knowing these facts could well give a new perspective on this & it might be worth reading his accounts again. Unfortunately, I haven't read these accounts & only have a basic overall knowledge of the Battle of Midway & haven't studied it in detail. This was also many years ago so I would have to bone up on the subject to discuss it properly.

I also read Professor Dallas Isom's response to what is basically a criticism of his own theories. http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/2001/Summer/imv-su1.htm
This is an intelligent & detailed argument between academics & Isom concedes some points. The whole thing is very interesting indeed but, as always, you have to read everything you can find on the subject & come to your own conclusion. Knowing these facts can only help. I'm no academic & purely an amateur historian, a very poor one at that.

PS. I don't know what it's all about but found the response to Stanley Weintraub's letter at the bottom of the above page highly amusing.

As a point of further illustration,  Fuchida was tasked to lead the Midway Striking Force, but he came down with appendicitis, just as the fleet sailed.  The appedicitis actually saved his life.  (Funny how life's turns go...)  Just prior to launch on the Akagi, Fuchida struggled out of his sickbay bed and made his way to the flight deck to watch the aircrews off, whick ended up saving his life again.  He was just a witness to the goings on on the flight deck, but never made it to where command decisions were being made.  What was pretty amazing was he watched as the Dauntlesses hurtled toward his ship.  He saw the first dropped it's bomb which overshot.  He thought to himself, the second will make corrections, and just as he predicted, the second Dauntless made a strike on the flight deck.

Anyway, he was not in favor of the Midway mission taking place as it did and how Yamamoto disposed his fleet.  First of all, Fuchida would rather had waited until the Shokkaku and Zuikkaku underwent repairs and gained new aircrews.  But Yamamoto was "spooked" by the Dolittle raid.  Also, Fuchida thought the Alutians mission was a waste and he was against having the main fleet hundereds of miles to the rear of Nagumo's striking force.

He scoffed at the thought of the Yamato being little more than a floating hotel, and he advocated having the BB's ring the carriers for protection.

Also, the Combined Fleet tasked Fuchida to do the official post mortem of the Midway debacle, so I think his involvement and knowlege on the subject goes beyond just being there.  But anyway, John Parshall,'s work seems very compelling and I'm looking forward to reading it.

I rememeber a few years ago, I got into a little debate with him regarding the significance of McClusky's "lucky"  turn to discover the Japanese striking force, and what could have happened if he never found it.  Parshall took my lunch away from me and ate it in my face!  I thought I knew a few things about Midway.  Parshall made me realize I knew far less that I thought I did.

After the Pearl Harbor mission, he was promoted to Captain.  And even then, he was given the high honor of attending an Imperial audience, a Captain!  That was just never done.  But Hirohito put up with with the admirals briefings and with great interest keyed in on what Fuchida had to say.

Regarding suicide, Fuchida did consider suicide at the end of the war but decided against it because he concluded he served his country with vigor and honor and had nothing to atone for.  In his autobiography, he does seem rather assured of himself and a bit over confident, but considering his career, it's hard to argue against it.  He was a scrawny kid who everyone thought was too weak and sickly to amount to much, but by the spring of 1942, his career was the stuff of dreams.