I'm with 68hawk.
Sorry but I don't see the US as a big threat at this point. Too busy running around chasing their own tails, worried about sabatage.
What if they'd hit Pearl with what they planned at midway, not just knock it down but capture it? US then does not have a staging point, it has the west coast ports ONLY. Japan takes over the entire pacific, can stage carriers offshore to keep the US bottled up. US can not move anything on the Pacific without Japanese long range Flying Boats & Patrol craft spotting them. So every time the US did try to move offshore they'd be swarmed with Japanese carrier planes.
Biggest things preventing this from happening.
Air & ground forces failing to work together. Army & Navy are wrapped up in a perpetual power and resource struggle.
Not enough trained, experienced pilots. Japan took too much of China/Mongolia and was trapped trying to hang on to it. If they'd hit china hard, smash & grab, then get out and move on to the next target. They'd of had more of everything available for the islands.
Not enough resources, not enough manufacturing capability.
US could have still won by building lots of carriers & planes on the east coast. Then through the Panama Canal and strike HARD at Pearl. But it would have been a lot tougher, taken a lot longer, with many more casualty's.
