[catnipman]

“I’ve read that the biggest mistakes that made at Pearl Harbor was not destroying dry docks and the oil farm.”

Their biggest mistake was not catching our aircraft carriers at dock at Pearl Harbor.

Upon hearing that no carriers were destroyed in his Pearl Harbor attack, Yamamoto said that Japan had just lost the war.

[henkster]

There was nothing Japan could do to win the war. They could only prolong it.

[driftless2]

From the quotes I’ve read from Yamamoto, he probably thought Japan could never win a war against the U.S. He knew the U.S. industrial capability would eventually overwhelm Japan. That and millions of angry Yanks thirsting for revenge after Pearl Harbor.

[98ZJ USMC]

“I’ve read that the biggest mistakes that made at Pearl Harbor was not destroying dry docks and the oil farm.”
-------
Their biggest mistake was not catching our aircraft carriers at dock at Pearl Harbor.

Upon hearing that no carriers were destroyed in his Pearl Harbor attack, Yamamoto said that Japan had just lost the war.

Regardless of Yamamotos' assessment, and it was a failure not to do so, not going after the facilities was the biggest error. Destroying the farms and drydocks would have tethered the Pacific Fleet to the West Coast. Coral Sea and Midway, very likely would have had different outcomes and on and on.

It's highly likely the remainder of the Pacific fleet would have been pulled back to San Diego completely, leaving Pearl Harbor wide open to invasion and reinforcement/relief extraordinarily difficult and very costly. There would have been no salvaging the battleships.

[samtheman]

Their biggest mistake was not catching our aircraft carriers at dock at Pearl Harbor.

Upon hearing that no carriers were destroyed in his Pearl Harbor attack, Yamamoto said that Japan had just lost the war.

First of all, even if they had gotten all our carriers, out production advantage -- highlighted in the article -- would have still carried us to victory. Maybe an extra year would have been tacked on to the length of the war, but probably not. After all, the loss of our carriers would not have changed the release-date of the atomic bomb.

But secondly, if our carriers had been in port on December 7, wouldn't our planes have been able to defend against the Pearl Harbor attack?

[fso301]

Their biggest mistake was not catching our aircraft carriers at dock at Pearl Harbor.

Even if all three had been dockside, the water was shallow and barring a magazine explosion like the Arizona, the sunk carriers could have been quickly refloated and repaired.

[Bulwyf]

There’s some interesting theories on why no carriers were there.