Is there any plausible scenario that would have led to Japan winning the war in the Pacific, or were they doomed from the moment they attacked Pearl Harbor?

by Ekooing

By the end of the war, the US was building ships and aircraft at an astonishing clip. They had dozens (or at least more than 1 dozen) aircraft carriers despite at one point being down to only 1 operational carrier early in the war. Even if the war has gone perfectly for them and Japan had won every battle for say the first 3-4 years, could they have ever actually won the war, or would the US have simply overpowered Japan with sheer manufacturing capability no matter how poorly it started for them?

jschooltiger

Without getting too much into the realm of what-if or alternate history, Japan would have had a very difficult time winning the war in the Pacific given American industrial capacity. In this answer from earlier in the week, I laid out Japan's proposed path to victory, which was well beyond their grasp by 1943.