The Japanese operational plan was specific on the issue of a third strike. It was only to be done if additional effort was required to destroy fleet units (specifically it calls for bombers to carry torpedoes). I posted the link to the OP in another one of these threads.
The Japanese, literally, never even considered striking the fuel tanks or other similar targets. The Japanese were looking to win a lightning war. They had little in the way of illusion of the end result of a long war, but they never expected to have to fight one. The plan was to knock the U.S. fleet out, grab the Southern Resource Areas, and establish a defensive perimeter that would be too costly for the U.S. to consider fighting through.
Since there wasn't going to be a long war, there was no reason to plan for one. They had knocked the fleet out, it would be months before the Americans would have any ships to use any fuel, so attacking it was pointless. It is only in hindsight that the need to attack the fuel tanks becomes apparent (which, BTW, wasn't as easy as some of the fans of the idea seem to think). Some of the Japanese junior officers who survived the war claim that they pushed for such a strike at the time, but that may well be an effort to rewrite history, and it was specifically against the written operational orders that Nagumo was following. IJN officers didn't violate written orders.
The Japanese war plan depended on the United States being a bunch of candy asses. When that assumption was disproved the whole Japanese construct came apart.
The Japanese, literally, never even considered striking the fuel tanks or other similar targets. The Japanese were looking to win a lightning war. They had little in the way of illusion of the end result of a long war, but they never expected to have to fight one. The plan was to knock the U.S. fleet out, grab the Southern Resource Areas, and establish a defensive perimeter that would be too costly for the U.S. to consider fighting through.
Since there wasn't going to be a long war, there was no reason to plan for one. They had knocked the fleet out, it would be months before the Americans would have any ships to use any fuel, so attacking it was pointless. It is only in hindsight that the need to attack the fuel tanks becomes apparent (which, BTW, wasn't as easy as some of the fans of the idea seem to think). Some of the Japanese junior officers who survived the war claim that they pushed for such a strike at the time, but that may well be an effort to rewrite history, and it was specifically against the written operational orders that Nagumo was following. IJN officers didn't violate written orders.
The Japanese war plan depended on the United States being a bunch of candy asses. When that assumption was disproved the whole Japanese construct came apart.