General Discussion

on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. They had no invasion troops with them. The objective of the attack was do enough damage to our fleet to inhibit any effective US Naval response for at least six months, to their offensive across most of the rest of the pacific, which did include Guam, the Phillipines, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, as well as Wake Island, that desolate rock whose only importance was as a possible base for American air power mid-pacific. The attack on the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor was only one small part of that grand offensive, meant to protect the Eastern flank of that offensive. In that objective, they were mostly successful--- the US was prevented from any meaningful action against the Japanese until May of 1942, six months later, when the US Navy turned back a Japanese offensive against Papua New Guina.

Yes, you are quite correct that the Japanese failure to destroy US aircraft carriers in Hawaii (since they weren't there) was their most significant failure of that Dec. 1941 offensive-- and made our great victory at Midway possible in June of 1942-- where our naval forces with 3 carriers were able to sink four Japanese carriers while losing one. Had the Japanese been able to take Midway Island and defeat our fleet carriers there, that certainly would have set the stage for a subsequent invasion of Hawaii.