The aircraft carriers — none of the three were in port at Pearl Harbor that day
Japan's primary targets were America's aircraft carriers, but none of the three Pacific Fleet carriers were at Pearl Harbor that morning. Enterprise and Lexington were at sea ferrying aircraft toward Wake Island and Midway, while Saratoga was in port on the mainland at San Diego. This stroke of luck proved decisive, because **carrier-based aviation**, not battleships, would dominate the rest of the Pacific war.
