You claim that the proof that we were a world power is that Churchill got a good nights sleep and that Yamamoto feared they had awakened the sleeping giant. But they did not fear our then current military might. The Japanese knew that they had completely knocked out or ability to enter the war at all, which was true. What they feared was our industrial might. An industrial giant the world had never seen protected by the greatest moats in the world.
Why if we were such a great military power did it take us so long to enter the war after that day of infamy, Pearl Harbor? Pearl Harbor was December 7, 1941 it was not until June 6, 1944 that the D-Day invasion was begun. Where was this great military power that you speak of for 3 years? It was being built. America became a great military power in the first 6 month's of 1944 when it's armies were amassed in Britain for the D-Day invasion.
Your recount of history leaves a few gaps. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, what was left of the U.S. Navy destroyed the Japenese fleet in the battle of the Coral Sea and the battle of Midway. Long before D-Day, there were some important battles going on in the pacific, North Africa, and Italy. In case you forgot, we were at war with Japan and Italy as well as with Germany. We didn't just bide our time until D-Day.
By D-Day, the war was pretty much won on both fronts for the Allies thanks to the might of the United States. The battle of Midway occurred in mid-1942 and we gave the Japanese a far greater blow than they gave us at Pearl Harbor. All their aircraft carriers were pretty much destroyed at Midway. After that, we went island hopping and never looked back. On the European front, the United States troops were already on the move in Italy before D-Day. But before D-Day even happened, the only real question was how long it would take us to get to Berlin and whether or not we could beat the Russians there.
by the 30’s we had downsized our military after “the war to end all wars” (WW1)we became a superpower simply by buying up england and frances debt during WW1 much like china is doing to us today!