“It is the 3rd of June, 1942,” Kodera describes. “It’s first light over Midway. The American Navy had been decoding the secret messages the Japanese were sending over their airways. The last message we intercepted before the enemy changed their codes was what amounted to the full battle order and operations plans for the Japanese attack on Midway. The long and the short of it was that we knew roughly where they were going to be, at about which time, but it was a pretty large area. ‘Roughly’ is the key operating word here.” That’s where Jack Reid and the crew of his amphibious flying patrol boat PBY-5A came in. They had been up since three that morning, taking time only for breakfast before getting airborne and starting the search along with twenty other planes. Seven hours later, just as Reid was deciding it was useless, he spotted something. “My God,” Reid said. “aren’t those ships on the horizon? I believe we have hit the jackpot.” Indeed they had. Thanks to their sighting, the American forces were able to ambush the Japanese forces and win the battle of Midway, despite being wildly outnumbered. This moment in history allowed Kodera to paint some of his favorite things. “I love the flying boats, great over-water clouds, and striking sunlight,” he explains, “so here was a perfect opportunity to portray those things. As it worked out, Jack Reid’s course that day would have gotten him into a position where he would have seen the first sun over the clouds, and all those wonderful colors. When Jack and his crew finally came upon the fleet, the sky had cleared, but I wanted to create a beautiful piece of artwork as I documented history.”

"Looking for Nagumo" comes complete with historical material, additional sketches in the print margin, and the signature of Jack Reid himself.