But because of the Japanese distribution of forces we weren't as overmatched as is commonly thought - it really boiled down to three American decks & and island base with 450 aircraft versus four Japanese decks and 270 aircraft.
Though they had momentum on their side the Japanese were beaten before the battle even started by virtue of their tactical plan - forces to widely spread - and strategic goal - split between taking Midway and destroying US naval airpower.
Actually the Japanese had superior aircraft at this point in the war. Midway Island had only a handful(maybe two or three)wildcat fighters with mostly Brewster Buffalos as there mainstay fighter, a plane that was highly out classed by the Zero. Even the Wildcat was slightly inferior to the Zero except in certain aspects. The carriers were full of the obsolete torpedo plane, most of which were shot down along with there crews in their attacks, in some instances 19 out of 19 planes in a squadron were killed before they could drop their torpedoes and the torpedoes that were launched didn't hit anything.
The plane that won it for us was the Douglas Dauntless dive bomber and then only because the torpedo planes had pulled the Zeros down to sea level in an effort to stop them so with no Zeros to oppose them the dive bombers were able to launch their attacks successfully, they had to come back the second day to get the 4th carrier, by that time the Japanese planes were all but gone.
The Japanese had the advantage except for one thing, our intelligence had broken the Japanese codes(not all of them but many)and the Japanese were so arrogant they thought no one could break their codes and they refused to change them. This lost them the war. Magic was kept secret for the entire war, a great achievement in it's own right.