Front page of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
Since its inception, there have been few days in the nation’s history to be declared infamous; the assassination of President JFK, the assassination of MLK, or September 11, 2001, to name a few. America’s first declared day of infamy was made on December 8, 1941, in response to Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor the day prior, Sunday, December 7, 1941.
The Attack
The American naval bases at Pearl Harbor were attacked on December 7,1941. That day, 353 Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service aircraft buzzed in at 7:48 a.m. HST (12:48 p.m. EST), leaving 21 American ships, and roughly 350 aircraft destroyed in the wake of their strikes. From a human standpoint, the death toll stood at 2,400 civilians and military personnel. Never had another nation reached out with a “big stick” of its own to touch the American homeland, and its citizens viewed the attack as devastating and surreal. Simultaneous with the attacks, the Empire of Japan formerly declared war on the United States and the British Empire.
The first wave of the attack on Pearl Harbor was to be the main attack and consisted of Japan sending 408 aircrafts: 360 for the second waves and 48 for defensive combat air control (CAP). The first wave was to concentrate on American attack carriers, cruisers, and battleships. Thorough in their planning, the Japanese sent in dive bombers to attack ground targets such as parked aircraft to prevent a rapid American response.
On December 6, the Japanese snuck about 12 miles in off the shore of Pearl Harbor and let lose their midget subs at about 1:00 p.m. local time on December 7. At 3:42 p.m. Hawaiian time, an astute American service member spotted a midget submarine periscope near the entrance of Pearl Harbor and immediately sent an alert to the American destroyer Ward. Ultimately, the Ward would fire the first shots of the Pacific War, sinking a midget submarine at 6:37 a.m. during its attempt to enter Pearl Harbor.
Notification of the attack and declaration of war
President Roosevelt was not notified of the attack until after 1:00 p.m. EST.
Roosevelt was dining with a friend, Harry Hopkins, when then secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, sent an urgent message via phone, which simply stated, “Air raid on Pearl Harbor. This is not a drill.”
Leaping into action, the president then ordered full mobilization of all military personnel; the nation would be going to war.
When developments reached the ear of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he telephoned Roosevelt and said, “We are all in the same boat now.”
There is still much debate regarding the timing of Japan’s declaration of war.
Admiral Yamamoto gave the command originally for the attack to occur thirty minutes after the official declaration of war against the U.S. was made. Unfortunately, the attack occurred prior to any notice of war ever being received by upper American intelligence officials. Commonly referred to as a “14-Part Message,” a 5,000-word “declaration” was transmitted in two blocks to the Japanese Embassy in Washington. The long-winded declaration allegedly took too long for the Japanese ambassador to deliver on time, though American code breakers are known to have deciphered the message in record time. However, the message did not seem to suggest to them a formal declaration of war was being made and so was not delivered to a senior member of the government until after the attack.
The following day, Japan’s newspapers ran headlines stating their nation had formerly declared itself to be at war with the United States and the British Empire.
The Speech
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the nation’s 32nd president, made the declaration of December 7, 1941, living in infamy during a legendary speech made before a joint session of congress on December 8, 1941, at 12:30 p.m. More of a briefing than a speech per say, Roosevelt’s address ran approximately 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
The president chose to address the nation the very next day after the attacks, December 8, using the moment to publicly emphasize America’s ignorance at Japan’s dastardly deed. Decisions were made in a meeting between Roosevelt and his cabinet members prior to the speech to not only address the nation immediately, but to also use language designed to manipulate a sense of patriotism and betrayal within the populace. Forever memorialized as the Infamy Speech, Roosevelt’s words did little to quell the nation’s collective uproar, but much to further concrete American patriotism, as well as garner global sympathy.
As such, it is revered as one of the more famous speeches to ever be given by a sitting U.S. president.
The Infamy Speech was broadcast on live radio and received the largest audience in American history. According to programming data from the time, American adults listened to the speech to the tune of 81%. Not long after its delivery, Congress unanimously declared war against the nation of Japan, formerly marking the nation’s entrance into World War II.