Japan lost all 4 biggest of her biggest carriers, (the same ones that had attacked Pearl Harbor a few months earlier) and all their skilled pilots and their planes. It was their primary strike force.

The US lost one carrier, Yorktown, at Midway The US did lose a lot of planes and pilots, but with our industrial power, were quickly replaced. In fact, planes, pilots and ships were already being prepared for war even as the battle was being fought.

Japan never was able to catch up, after Midway, she knew that the Pearl Harbor raid would only leave her a window of a year or so before America’s industrial power surpassed her. Japan was on the defensive immediately after the battle, so it was indeed a strategic victory for us. But with a 4-3 advantage in fleet carriers at the start converted to a 0-2 shortfall, it was also a tactical disaster for the Japanese. I’m sure their naval Leadership was well aware of that. Or should have been.

But be that as it may, reading that IJN action report tells us today that they were doing their best to psychologically minimize the scale and impact of the loss, if not to their political leadership, then to to themselves.

The characterization of tactical defeat/strategic victory could be applied to the Battle of the Coral Sea, a few months earlier. The two opponents were of roughly equal strength, and we sustained heavier losses than the Japanese, but the Japanese advance in the Western Pacific was stopped, buying the Allies time.

The time between Pearl Harbor and Midway must have been been one of dread and despair for those Americans who actually knew the situation in the Pacific. It was our finest hour.

After the end of WWII, US authorities acquired the Imperial Japanese Navy’s after-action report on the Battle of Midway in 1942. Reading the report, it is impossible to arrive at the conclusion that the Japanese lost! In their eyes, the results were, at best, inconclusive. We know today that this engagement was one of the most decisive in history. In a matter of hours, the Japanese war effort transformed from a victorious rampage against the Allies to a complete turning point and a slow but painful retreat. the IJN lost 4 carriers, all their aircraft and their best pilots. They never recovered.

No one can accuse Japanese naval planners of incompetence, they were brilliant, but reading this report should demonstrate how even the best military minds are capable of deluding themselves; or at least, of covering their asses so effectively they are incapable of recognizing, much less correcting, their mistakes.

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/j/japanese-story-of-the-battle-of-midway.html