Just carriers and fighters alone aren’t going to get the job done.
That said aircraft carriers and fighters were decisive technologies in World War II (next to tanks, subs, and bombers). And at only 10$, fighters are a bargain. Only tanks and inf are bigger bargains in AA Revised. Subs and destroyers are useless in land battles; battleships are too expensive. Fighters on the other hand are a sound and flexible investment.
So yeah, getting 3 ACs for the Pacific battle is highly recommended. It’s also a decent precaution to get a carrier USA1 if you are going with an Atlantic strat (though sometimes you can do without it). But I wouldn’t go to far with it–don’t buy more than 1 AC per turn. Ultimately the game is won by land units so dont forget to buy transports and men. Keep in mind that you want 2 subs, 2 trannies, 1 destroyer, 6 fighters, 1 BB, and 3 CVs as your baseline USA Pacific fleet–if the Japs build subs or air then you’ll have to build more (and by that i mean subs, 1 more carrier, and 2 more fighters…and then bombers when you are ready to go on the offensive). This fleet will be ready to go USA3 if there’s no Pearl attack…otherwise you have to wait till USA4. The nice thing with going with a heavy air strat is at 10$ fighters are cheap to replace and since they can move 4 spaces they can get to their destinations quicker than normal naval units.