On Mon, 31 May 2004, Jeroen Wenting wrote:

Only after the Japanese show definite hostile intent shoot down as many as
possible and provide guidance for a retaliatory strike of B-17s and B-25s
against the Japanese carriers.

There weren't any B-25s on Oahu[1] and the only B-17s were the
one squadron which was ferrying in from California (without
guns!) and which was caught the landing pattern just as
the Japanese attack was reaching it's zenith.

B-17s, in any case, displayed a remarkable inability to
hit manuevering warships at sea. Even assuming the squadron
from California could have landed at Hickham intact and undamaged,
and even assuming that a B-17 counterstrike could have been
armed and launched, there's little reason to believe that
they would have hit any thing at all except, possibly, the
pacific ocean.

[1] There was a squadron of obsolescent B-18s at Hickham.
There's no reason to suppose the B-18s would have
been any more effective or accurate than the B-17s later
proved to be.

Cheers and all,