Hardcore History has a great series on the Pacific Theatre of WWII called Supernova in the East. It goes into the learning curve of aircraft carriers by Japan and the US. There was actually a fair amount of luck involved by the US shortly after Pearl Harbor that diminished Japan's air capabilities for the rest of the war.

The way it was always presented to me in school is that the US victory was inevitable. This podcast series gives a much less biased view.