[Professional]

The raid was a feel good.

So much so, it marked the turning point of the stock market on the exit from the Great Depression

[sparklite2]

Didn’t know that about the stock market.

As for the raid, a Japanese fishing boat saw the carrier two hundred miles beyond what the range of the raid was meant to be. Figuring the jig was up, they launched anyway. Not much time to linger on target, but what damage was done was mostly psychological anyway.

Yamamoto was in the process of trying to get the Japanese Army to go along with his plans for the next step of the war. The Japanese were suffering from “victory fever” stemming from the success of Pearl Harbor, et al, and wanted the country to do something.

The Doolittle raid shocked the military into giving Yamamoto a mostly free hand, resulting in their disastrous attack on Midway Island, breaking the back of the IJN.

[JoeFromSidney]

Yes, the raid did "feel good." I was all of 11 years old, but I remember the boost it gave to everyone's morale. At last, we were hitting back.

[YogicCowboy]

It was equivalent to RAF bombing Berlin: largely symbolic, yet powerful.