This morning brought sights and sounds of the incredible destruction caused by the 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan. The nature of communications and broadcast journalism allowed us to see actual video of the event as it occurred. The amount of structural survival proves that the Japanese have been successful at mitigating some forms of damage via engineering and regulation. The overwhelming impact of the subsequent tsunami proves that we are a long way from engineering our survival as a species.
I was watching the reports from Japan on CNN, listening to the countdown as the tsunami approached Hawaii. The meteorology reporter made the statement that they could somewhat predict how much damage Hawaii could expect based upon the damage at Midway Atoll. I was amazed to hear the “anchor,” Kiran Chetry, ask where Midway is.
Sixty-nine years ago the U.S. and Japan fought a great battle over the Coral Sea and then another over Midway. The nature of naval warfare made a quantum change from the dreadnought/heavy battleship fleets to the aircraft carrier fleets. The opposing fleets at Coral Sea never sighted each other except via their aircraft. The battle of Midway, as well as the earlier battle of Coral Sea turned back Japanese forces from the Hawaiian chain and from Australia. The destruction of the Japanese carriers at Midway marked the reversal of Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
Midway is the northern most and western most point in the Hawaiian archipelago. It sits about 1/3 of the way between Honolulu and Tokyo, about halfway between the U.S west coast and Japan’s east coast. Hence the name “Midway Atoll.”
“Midway Atoll is part of a chain of volcanic islands, atolls, and seamounts extending from Hawai'i up to the tip of the Aleutian Islands and known as the Hawaii-Emperor chain. Midway was formed roughly 28 million years ago when the seabed underneath it was over the same hotspot from which the Island of Hawai'i is now being formed. In fact, Midway was once a shield volcano perhaps as large as the island of Lana'i. As the volcano piled up lava flows building the island, its weight depressed the crust and the island slowly subsided over a period of millions of years, a process known as isostatic adjustment. As the island subsided, a coral reef around the former volcanic island was able to maintain itself near sea level by growing upwards. That reef is now over 516 ft (160 m) thick (Ladd, Tracey, & Gross, 1967; in the lagoon, 1,261 feet (384 m), comprised mostly post-Miocene limestones with a layer of upper Miocene (Tertiary g) sediments and lower Miocene (Tertiary e) limestones at the bottom overlying the basalts. What remains today is a shallow water atoll about 6 miles (10 km) across.
The atoll has some 20 miles (32 km) of roads, 4.8 miles (7.8 km) of pipelines, one port on Sand Island (World Port Index Nr. 56328, MIDWAY ISLAND), and one active runway (rwy 06/24, around 8,000 feet (2,400 m) long). As of 2004, Henderson Field airfield at Midway Atoll has been designated as an emergency diversion airport for aircraft flying under ETOPS rules. Although the FWS closed all airport operations on November 22, 2004, public access to the island was restored beginning March 2008.[5]
Eastern Island Airstrip is a disused airfield in use by U.S. forces during the Battle of Midway, June 4–6, 1942. It is mostly constructed of Perforated Steel Plate sectional matting, built by the U.S. Navy Seabees.”
“The atoll was sighted on July 5, 1859 by Captain N.C. Middlebrooks, though he was most commonly known as Captain Brooks, of the sealing ship Gambia. The islands were named the "Middlebrook Islands" or the "Brook Islands". Brooks claimed Midway for the United States under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, which authorized Americans to occupy uninhabited islands temporarily to obtain guano. On 28 August 1867, Captain William Reynolds of the USS Lackawanna formally took possession of the atoll for the United States; the name changed to "Midway" some time after this. The atoll became the first Pacific islands annexed by the U.S. government, as the Unincorporated Territory of Midway Island, and administered by the United States Navy. Midway is the only island in the entire Hawaiian archipelago that was not later part of the State of Hawaii.”
“In 1903, workers for the Commercial Pacific Cable Company took up residence on the island as part of the effort to lay a trans-Pacific telegraph cable. These workers introduced many non-native species to the island, including the canary, cycad, Norfolk Island pine, she-oak, coconut, and various deciduous trees, along with ants, cockroaches, termites, centipedes, and countless others.
Later that year, President Theodore Roosevelt placed the atoll under the control of the United States Navy, which on 20 January 1903 opened a radio station in response to complaints from cable company workers about Japanese squatters and poachers. Between 1904 to 1908, Roosevelt stationed 21 Marines on the island to end wanton destruction of bird life and keep Midway safe as a U.S. possession, protecting the cable station.
In 1935, operations began for the China Clippers, flying boats operated by Pan American Airlines. The Clippers island-hopped from San Francisco to China, providing the fastest and most luxurious route to the Orient and bringing tourists to Midway until 1941. Only the extremely wealthy could afford a Clipper trip, which in the 1930s cost more than three times the annual salary of an average American. With Midway on the route between Honolulu and Wake Island, the seaplanes landed in the atoll and pulled up to a float offshore in the lagoon. Tourists transferred to a small powerboat that ferried them to a pier, then rode in "woody" wagons to the Pan Am Hotel or the "Gooneyville Lodge", named after the ubiquitous "Gooney birds" (albatrosses).”
The U.S. Navy assumed control of the Atoll prior to WWII and maintained control of it until the atoll was declared a national wildlife refuse by Clinton and a National Monument by Bush II>
That’s probably more than most people will ever want to know about Midway atoll.
I grew up during the period when news anchors were highly respected individuals with intensive field experience, chosen for their intelligence and integrity, not their physical appearance. I measure today’s “news anchors” against the high standards set by Murrow, Cronkite, Huntly, Kuralt, and the rest of them who viewed news as a public service, not another opportunity to broadcast propaganda. They had a connection with the history of the world that allowed them to compare and contrast the scope of today’s events against a larger and often greater sequence. For Chetry to ask “where is Midway” would be akin to Rather asking, “where is Gettysburg. The significance should be great enough to fix the event in the memory of any news journalist. The “anchor” desk demands more of its occupants than they are willing to provide these days. Physical appearance, sorority membership, cream-puff stories, and filling a slot on Fox News do not offer me any reason to consider one a successor to Cronkite.
Please do your homework at home or off the air, Ms. Chetry. There are many reasons to study history. Please show us you are more than just a face.
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