I have always viewed the A-Bomb as a big lesson for the Japanese; i.e. don’t bomb Pearl Harbor without warning on a Sunday, December 7, 1941. My Dad was in the movement towards Japan moving by carrier to Hawaii when the war ended. He was home by October.
Big Mistake. A good example of a tactical victory and a strategic defeat.
I shock some people when I tell that that Pearl Harbor was the best of a bad situation. Consider these IFs:
1) If the ships had been moored at the alternate anchorage at Lahaina Roads, they would have sunk in much deeper water, making salvage much more difficult, if not impossible. Sunk at Pearl Harbor, the depth was around 40' with all ships superstructure above water, save the Oklahoma. Six months later, all but two were back in action.
2) Even if the radar warning or the destroyers depth charge report had been acted on immediately, we couldn't have gotten enough aircraft in the air in time. If the ships had enough warning to get out to deeper, open water, it would have been a repeat of the Repulse/Prince of Wales disaster.
3) If the attack had wiped out the oil tanks, we would have had to pull the fleet back to the States.
4) If the Japanese typist had been faster at translating the final reply, the U.S. would have received the declaration (or words to that effect) minutes before the attack and the "Sneak Attack" charge that galvanized America could not have been made. (Japs cut the timing too close.)
One other point. The final idiocy was Hitler's declaration of war a few days later. I was just eight years old then and clearly remember everyone, even the America Firsters, were blind with rage against the Japanese. It is my belief that if he had stayed out, we would have said Hitler was Europe's problem and expended all our efforts into crushing Japan.