On June 3, 1942, a Japanese carrier strike force, under the command of Rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta, comprising the carriers Ship Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō 2 and Ship Japanese aircraft carrier Jun'yō 2 , plus escort ships, sailed to 180 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor to launch air strikes at the United States Army and United States Navy facility to support a Japanese offensive in the Aleutians and in the central Pacific at Midway.