With the US Navy far from permanently crippled, the Japanese were met with heavy resistance in the Pacific Theater that eventually led to the destruction of most of the high-profile vessels that had taken part in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The luck of the Japanese Navy wouldn't last forever, however, and while the mighty ships returned unscathed from the surprise attack on the unsuspecting American fleet, surviving the course of the war proved far more difficult. In total, the Pearl Harbor Striking Force consisted of six aircraft carriers, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, two battleships, nine destroyers, eight tankers, 23 fleet submarines and five midget subs, and of that force, only four of the mini subs were lost. The Imperial Japanese Navy employed vessels that made up the well-oiled task force that crossed the Pacific to launch the two waves of Japanese fighters and bombers to lay waste to the US Naval Base and the battleships moored there.

The success of pulling off the attack on the Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 wasn’t a miracle.

Japanese naval ship armada