Pearl Harbor Address ("A Date Which Will Live in Infamy")

Summary

On Sunday morning, 7 December 1941, Japanese carrier aircraft struck the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, damaging or sinking all eight battleships in the harbor, destroying much of the aircraft on the island, and killing more than 2,400 Americans. That evening Roosevelt dictated a short draft to his secretary Grace Tully and then revised it by hand. Shortly after noon on Monday, 8 December, he spoke to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber, with a radio audience that was the largest of its time. The address takes about seven minutes. It opens with the date and the charge: the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked, and the day will live in infamy, a word Roosevelt substituted in his own hand for world history. He then lays out the case for treachery. The nation was at peace and still negotiating at Japan's request; an hour after the bombing began, Japan's ambassador delivered a reply that contained no hint of war; and the distance from Japan to Hawaii proves the attack was planned days or weeks before, while Tokyo deceived Washington with expressions of hope for peace. Next comes a bare litany of the wider offensive: Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, Wake Island, and Midway, each in its own short paragraph. The facts, Roosevelt says, speak for themselves. As Commander in Chief he has ordered all measures for defense; the nation will remember the character of the onslaught; and the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. Hostilities exist, he states flatly. He closes with confidence in the armed forces and the people, so help us God, and with the formal request that Congress declare a state of war with the Japanese Empire. The Senate voted 82 to 0 and the House 388 to 1, with Representative Jeannette Rankin the only dissent. Roosevelt signed the declaration that afternoon. Three days later Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

Plot or Argument

• The date and the charge (Paragraph 1)

  Roosevelt names the day, brands it with infamy, and states the fact: the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

• The evidence of deceit (Paragraphs 2-3)

  The nation was at peace and still in talks at Japan's request. The Japanese reply delivered an hour after the bombing began held no threat of war, and the distance from Japan to Hawaii shows the attack was planned long before while Tokyo spoke of peace.

• Damage and the widening offensive (Paragraphs 4-10)

  Roosevelt reports severe damage and very many lives lost, then lists the attacks on Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, Wake, and Midway in short repeated sentences, concluding that the facts speak for themselves.

• Resolve (Paragraphs 11-15)

  As Commander in Chief he has ordered all defensive measures. The nation will remember the onslaught and, however long it takes, win absolute victory and ensure that such treachery never again endangers it. Hostilities exist, and he trusts in the forces, the people, and God.

• The request (Paragraph 16)

  Roosevelt asks Congress to declare that a state of war has existed with the Japanese Empire since the unprovoked and dastardly attack of Sunday, 7 December.

Lessons

• Letting facts carry the argument

  Roosevelt makes his case for war almost without adjectives in the middle of the speech. The list of places attacked overnight, one per sentence, does the persuading, and he says so: the facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. Restraint at the center makes the moral words at the beginning and end weigh more.

  • Why might Roosevelt give each place attacked its own short paragraph instead of a single list?
  • Which words in the speech are moral judgments rather than reports of fact? Where are they placed?
  • Would a longer speech with more detail have been more persuasive or less?

• Treachery and the just cause of war

  The address rests the justice of war on the manner of the attack as much as its damage: Japan struck while negotiating and sought to deceive the United States with talk of peace. Roosevelt frames the declaration as a response to an unprovoked wrong already done, so that Congress recognizes a war that already exists.

  • What evidence does Roosevelt give that the attack was premeditated?
  • Why does he ask Congress to declare that a state of war has existed since 7 December rather than that war begins now?
  • In the just war tradition, what conditions must be met for a nation to go to war? Which does the speech address?

• Memory as a national duty

  Roosevelt tells the nation that the date will live in infamy and that the whole nation will always remember the character of the onslaught. The speech does not only ask for a declaration; it fixes how the event will be remembered, joining resolve to remembrance.

  • What does Roosevelt want Americans to remember: the losses, the deception, or both?
  • How has the phrase a date which will live in infamy shaped the memory of 7 December?
  • When is it right for a nation to keep an injury in memory, and when does memory become an obstacle to later peace?

Context

Japan had been at war in China since 1937 and had moved into French Indochina in 1940-1941. The United States responded with embargoes, culminating in the freezing of Japanese assets and the cutoff of oil in the summer of 1941. Negotiations in Washington between Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura, joined by special envoy Saburo Kurusu, continued into December, while the Japanese fleet sailed for Hawaii on 26 November. Within hours of Pearl Harbor, Japan also struck British and American positions across the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Composition

Roosevelt dictated the first draft to Grace Tully on the evening of 7 December and revised it himself. The typed draft with his handwritten changes survives at the National Archives: a date which will live in world history became a date which will live in infamy, and simultaneously became suddenly. The closing sentence ending so help us God was suggested by Harry Hopkins on the morning of 8 December, under the heading Deity on the second draft, according to National Archives records. The National Archives text stored here reproduces the hyphen after triumph as printed.

Reception

Congress passed the war resolution within about an hour of the speech, Senate 82-0 and House 388-1, and Roosevelt signed it at 4:10 that afternoon. Broadcast audience estimates of the time put it at a large majority of American radio households. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States on 11 December, and Congress answered the same day. The phrase about infamy became the fixed name by which Americans recall the attack.

Comparisons

• we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches

  Churchill's speech of June 1940 and Roosevelt's of December 1941 both turn disaster into resolve, but Churchill speaks at length after a retreat while Roosevelt speaks briefly to begin a war.

• fdr-first-inaugural-address

  In 1933 Roosevelt asked for power to wage a war against the emergency as if the nation were invaded; in 1941 the invasion was real, and the speech is a fraction of the length.

• give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death

  Patrick Henry also told an assembly that the war had already begun and asked it to act; Roosevelt's flat Hostilities exist plays the role of Henry's cry that the war is actually begun.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The placement of a date which will live in infamy between dashes inside the very first sentence.
• The adverbs suddenly and deliberately in Paragraph 1, and deliberately again in Paragraph 3.
• The proof from distance in Paragraph 3: Hawaii is too far from Japan for the attack to have been improvised.
• The litany of Paragraphs 5-9, where Last night and Yesterday repeat and each target stands alone.
• The two-word sentence Hostilities exist, and the shift from fact to resolve that follows it.

Key terms and names

Infamy

Lasting public disgrace; Roosevelt's handwritten replacement for world history in the draft's first sentence.

Joint session

A meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives together, held in the House chamber, where Roosevelt delivered the address.

Commander in Chief

The president's constitutional role over the armed forces, under which Roosevelt says he has already ordered defensive measures.

Declaration of war

A formal act that the Constitution reserves to Congress; the address ends by requesting one.

Oahu

The Hawaiian island where Pearl Harbor and the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet lay.

Premeditated

Planned in advance; Roosevelt's word for the invasion, supported by his argument from distance.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What was the state of relations between the United States and Japan on the morning of 7 December, according to Paragraph 2?
2. Comprehension Which places does Roosevelt say Japan attacked, and in what order does he list them?
3. Interpretation Why does Roosevelt describe the Japanese diplomatic reply in detail? What does it add to the charge against Japan?
4. Interpretation What is the effect of the short repeated sentences beginning Last night?
5. Interpretation Why does Roosevelt say the people have already formed their opinions? What does that imply about the purpose of the speech?
6. Big Question Roosevelt speaks of the righteous might of the American people. What makes a nation's cause righteous in war, and can a nation be righteous in its cause but not in its conduct?
7. Big Question Should the power to declare war belong to the legislature rather than the executive? What does this speech show about why the Constitution divides it?

Faith Connections

• Augustine, City of God XIX.7 (Church Fathers)

  Augustine teaches that the wise man wages just wars only with grief at the wrong that compels them. Roosevelt's restrained tone, grounded in a wrong already done, sits near that understanding of just cause.

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 40, a. 1 (Great Conversation)

  Aquinas names three conditions for a just war: the authority of the sovereign, a just cause such as a wrong inflicted, and right intention. The address supplies the second, and its closing request to Congress observes the first.

• Psalm 20:7 (Scripture)

  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Roosevelt's closing places confidence in armed forces and people and then ends with so help us God, a pairing the psalm invites students to weigh.

• Romans 13:4 (Scripture)

  Paul calls the governing authority a minister of God who does not bear the sword in vain. The address shows a constitutional government taking up the sword through its lawful process.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Japan attacked the United States while at peace and negotiating; the distance involved shows the attack was premeditated and the negotiations deceptive; the attacks across the Pacific show a general offensive; therefore a state of war already exists, and Congress should formally declare it while the nation resolves on absolute victory.

Rhetorical device: Anaphora. In Paragraphs 6-9 Roosevelt opens four consecutive sentences with Last night, each reporting a new attack.

Debate: Resolved: Roosevelt's demand for absolute victory was the right war aim to announce on 8 December 1941.

Memory Work

Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Roosevelt said the facts speak for themselves, yet he chose and arranged them with great care. Analyze how the selection and order of facts in the address turn a report into an argument for war.

Comparison with We Shall Fight on the Beaches: Compare Churchill's address of 4 June 1940 with Roosevelt's of 8 December 1941. How does each leader describe the enemy, the danger, and the certainty of victory, and how does the length of each speech suit its purpose?

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Compare a facsimile of Roosevelt's typed draft, available from the National Archives, with the delivered text. Discuss each handwritten change and decide what it adds.

• Essay

  Roosevelt asks Congress for a declaration of war in about 500 words. Explain how the order of the speech (date, deceit, damage, litany, resolve, request) builds the case, and why he puts the request last.

• Fiction

  Write the scene in a family's kitchen on 8 December 1941 as they listen to the address on the radio, with a son of military age at the table.

Further Reading

• At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, Gordon W. Prange

  The standard detailed history of the planning and execution of the attack.

• Day of Infamy, Walter Lord

  A narrative of 7 December built from hundreds of eyewitness accounts.

• Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation into War, Steven M. Gillon

  Follows Roosevelt hour by hour from the first report to the address and the vote.

• A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory, Emily S. Rosenberg