Greg, the greatest possible respect to everyone who fought for the cause, but "...touched off a conflagration the scale of which hasn't been known before or since..."? That, presumably, would be apart from the conflagration usually known as the 'Second World War', which had already been raging for more than two years by the time December '41 came around? The scale of death and destruction on the East European front (connection with Pearl Harbour: nil) far exceeded that of any other theatre of the war.

The irony with Pearl Harbour, of course, is that the Japanese got the idea from the British. A handful of torpedo-carrying Royal Navy biplanes had raided the Italian port of Taranto, where they effectively put the Italian navy out of action for the rest of the war. That's what the Japanese were trying to do to the US Pacific fleet. I guess they bit off a little more than they could chew.