There is no doubt that the results of the Japanese Combined Fleet's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in this time and space are far greater than in history, but there are gains and losses in everything, and the Japanese have also paid a much greater price than in history. In just 31 hours, the Japanese army had shot down 311 carrier-based aircraft alone, and the ace pilots suffered heavy losses, which were in no way inferior to the historical Battle of Midway if we only consider the aviation forces. In addition, 37 tanks and 119 armored vehicles were destroyed by the US troops in the Japanese landing force, and the total number of Japanese casualties was as high as more than 2,000, and the Japanese residents of Oahu who cooperated with the Japanese offensive and set off a riot also suffered more than 10,000 casualties

However, although the loss was comparable to the historical Battle of Midway, and even more than the 29 planes lost in the historical attack on Pearl Harbor, this battle is still called Japan's greatest victory during World War II, far more highly regarded than the Pearl Harbor incident in history, and some people even believe that this victory is not only unprecedented, but also will be extinct, because with the emergence of the nuclear balance of terror, it is unlikely that a direct war will break out between Shijie powers

The reason why it has received such a high evaluation is actually very simple, after the Battle of Pearl Harbor in history, only 4 of the 8 capital ships of the US Pacific Fleet were blown up and sunk, and 2 of them were salvaged and repaired, so the US Pacific Fleet actually lost only 2 old battleships, and as for the more important aircraft carriers, they did not lose a single one.

This was not even possible with the later victory at the Battle of Midway. After the successive repairs of those capital ships, the strength of the US Pacific Fleet was still not below that of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and after a number of Essex-class aircraft carriers were completed and put into service one after another, and nine Cleveland-class light cruisers were also urgently converted into light aircraft carriers, the strength of the US Pacific Fleet will be far superior to that of the Japanese Combined Fleet. In the final analysis, it was precisely because the main force of the Pacific Fleet was still there that the United States' strong shipbuilding capability was able to slowly bring into play, so from the perspective of the purpose of the campaign, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in history did not have much significance other than to buy a few months (Note 1).

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was completely different, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet survived except for one aircraft carrier under maintenance. The other capital ships are gone; And the loss of Oahu, the most important naval base, not only means that the U.S. military will not be able to salvage and repair the sunken warships. On the contrary, the Japanese have this possibility, this in and out, every time one capital ship is picked up and repaired, it is equivalent to obtaining two capital ships. The magnitude of America's losses can be imagined. And what is even more painful for the Americans. Oahu's dockyards are among the top three in the Pacific Ocean, with better equipment and personnel than Japan's largest shipyards (Note 2), and Pearl Harbor is only 12 meters deep. As a result, the Japanese could easily salvage the sunken warships and repair them nearby, which is really inefficient

Even if the "1=2" factor is not taken into account, the Japanese Combined Fleet, which has lost 12 aircraft carriers without any losses, is far from being able to compete with the US Pacific Fleet, which has only one aircraft carrier available, and although the US Navy can unseal those old ships that have not been decommissioned for a long time, and even transfer the main force of the Atlantic Fleet to the Pacific theater, the number of the former is limited, and the latter will take a month to sail from the European theater, at least the east coast of the United States, to the Hawaiian Islands, and it will be difficult to save the emergency at all. Moreover, at this time, the total number of capital ships of the US Navy was only 13, including 9 battleships and 4 aircraft carriers, and there was no great advantage over the Japanese Navy

However, once the Japanese were given enough time to repair all the fortresses on Oahu, the U.S. Admiralty, which was well aware of its terrifying defense capabilities, knew very well that under the premise that it was not a sneak attack, there was no fleet capable of capturing Oahu at all, and the United States could not have the possibility of an undeclared war and a sneak attack at the cost of losing international credibility like Japan, and the only way to recover Oahu was a long-term siege. At least before the first batch of Essex-class aircraft carriers are completed and put into service, and the nine Cleveland-class light cruisers are converted into aircraft carriers, the US Navy does not have this capability.

As in history, the Pearl Harbor incident marked the outbreak of the Pacific War and the full-scale development of World War II, but the butterfly effect caused by Hu Weidong, the traverser, has made the strength of the Shijie powers very different from the comparative history, according to the statistics of various countries in the following year and the estimates and comparisons of later historians, the comprehensive national strength (military direction) ranking of the great powers in 1941 is roughly as follows:

The first is undoubtedly the United States, which is vast in depth and vast in size, ranking fourth in Shijie in terms of land area, and has an excellent geographical location, even if the Japanese occupy Oahu, it is still difficult to threaten the American mainland, and the population has reached more than 130 million, and the total number of US Army troops that have completed the first round of expansion at the end of 1941 is not less than 800,000, and the maximum mobilization capacity is more than 20 million. It is also worth mentioning that at the end of 1941, the United States had a large contingent of more than 300,000 amateur pilots, which was unmatched by any other country in Shijie (Note 3)

Note 1: It was only because of the excellent performance of the Japanese Army (in fact, it should be said that the British and American troops in the South Seas were too poor) and made full use of this time to sweep the South Seas, which increased the value of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, otherwise it was just 29 aircraft to kill 2 enemy battleships, even its most commendable exchange ratio was not as good as the British sneak attack on Taranto and the subsequent Battle of Malaya (the loss of 4 aircraft killed two British capital ships).

Note 2: Although these people will almost certainly not be willing to work for the enemy, there was no humanity to speak of during World War II, and they had little to do in the face of the devil's bayonets, and the Japanese, who are proficient in "X to X", are far better at using the industrial capacity of the occupied areas than the Germans

Note 3: The Soviet Union, Britain and Germany are not as many as the United States, as for Japan, because the economy is not rich, there are basically no amateur aviation clubs and amateur aviation schools in the country, so most of the flight cadets recruited by the army have to learn to fly from scratch, and it takes longer to grow up. (To be continued......)