Originally Posted by Devilsadvocate

First of all, there seems to be a lot of confusion and misinformation as to exactly how many carriers might have been docked at Pearl Harbor on December 7; the Japanese thought there might be as many as five. In fact, there were only two carriers, Enterprise and Lexington, near Hawaii at the time, and both of them were delivering aircraft to reinforce Midway and Wake. Enterprise had delivered planes to Wake and was scheduled to return to Pearl Harbor on Saturday, December 6, but bad weather delayed her and she was still some 2oo miles away on the morning of the 7th. The third Pacific Fleet carrier, Saratoga, was in San Diego picking up a new airgroup after having been dry docked at Mare Island for a minor refit. The other US fleet carriers, Ranger, Hornet, Wasp, and Yorktown were all in the Atlantic.

So the maximum number of carriers the Japanese might have damaged or sunk at Pearl Harbor is two. That would still leave five fleet carriers for operations in the Pacific once the Atlantic carriers had been transferred to the Pacific. As for the impact on the war, it would have been a blow to the USN, but probably wouldn't have immediately affected strategy or operations. I suspect, as some one else has pointed out, that the USN would rapidly salvage the damaged or sunken carriers and return them to service, probably in time for Coral Sea or Midway, at the latest.