Remember this day
It was on this day, this hour, this minute sixty-five years ago on a clear Hawai'ian morning, that the sons of the Chrysanthemum Throne screamed out of the sky and devastated the American Pacific Fleet.
Sunk was the Arizona, the West Virginia and Oklahoma were capsized, the Nevada beached, and the rest of the battleships, Tennessee, Maryland, California and Pennsylvania were all damaged to some degree.
While most historians consider this a decisive Japanese victory, it wasn't. While tactically the Japanese might have won, because of all the damage done, it was a Japanese strategic loss, simply because the shipyard, fuel farm, and submarine base was left intact.
It has been said that an archer with no arrows is useless. If the Japanese had gone after the support structure, and left the ships alone, they would have crippled the American fleet much worse. Not only because the fleet could not sortie, but because the battleships would have still formed the backbone of the Pacific Fleet, instead of having to rely on the aircraft carriers.
At the time, American strategists still believed that naval power came from a gun, instead of the aircraft. While the Battle of Pearl Harbor might have turned some opinions, I don't think so. They would have taken the fleet out and had it promptly sunk, this time in deep water where they could not be repaired. Aircraft Carriers, relegated to the roll of scouting, would have eventually come to the forefront of American battle tactics, hopefully before they were sunk.
But the course of the war would have been much different if the Japanese had done things a little differently. America would have still won, but a 4 year war could have turned into a 6 or even 8 year war. First, Pearl Harbor would have to have been rebuilt, allowing time for the Japanese to consolidate their East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, and possibly build up their industry to the point where it would be very difficult to defeat. But, America is the Land of the Assembly Line, and we would have prevailed, it was just a matter of time and blood.