There is an apparent misconception in the narrative that leads one to believe that our carriers were somehow damaged at the Pearl Harbor raid. In fact none of the US aircraft carriers were at Pearl during the day of infamy. Had they been, the Battle of Midway might have had a different conclusion, instead, the Battle of Midway was perhaps the decisisve battle of the war when all of the Japanese carriers involved were sunk.
The two light carriers in the Northern (Aleutians) operation of course were undamaged - they were raced south after the first attack sinking the Akagi, the Kaga, and the Soryu. But they failed to arrive in time.
There were also, I believe, two light carriers protecting the Japanese Main Body. Not part of Nagumo's striking force.
But the four fleet carriers the Japanese lost were the ones that mattered. They were four of Japan's six biggest carriers, with her best pilots and crews. And she never recovered from that loss.
Midway was important not just in terms of the Pacific war but the entire world war as well. A Japanese victory would have made it very difficult for the U.S. to contribute much in Europe for some time.