
“December 7th, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy,” these were the words that defined one of the most iconic time periods in American History. President Roosevelt delivered his speech on December 8th, 1941, the day following Japan’s widespread sneak attack on the entire Pacific. His speech was the final step that led the United States to finally taking up arms in World War II and going to fight alongside Allies in both the Pacific and in Europe. The Japanese had tricked the United States, and the American people were no longer content to sit idle as the rest of the world was engulfed by the flames of war. FDR’s speech, “For a Declaration of War,” following the attack on Pearl Harbor can be better understood with knowledge of the rising tensions between the United States, Japan, and Japan’s allies.

In order to effectively understand the reasoning behind Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and the rest of the Pacific, one must first look at the actions of Japan during the 1930’s. Japan first began an Imperialist movement in 1931 when Japan invaded a region of China called Manchuria. This happened during China’s civil war between Chinese nationalists and communists (Sino-Japanese War). Because of the internal conflict in China, Japan was met with minimal resistance from any organized army. A few uprisings from local residents in China were all that stood between Japan and its conquest of territory in China. China eventually reached out to the League of Nations for help and the League responded by condemning the actions of Japan. This led to outrage from the Japanese diplomats in attendance at the League; those diplomats left the meeting and the Japanese have not returned since then (Sino-Japanese War). The conflicting parties in China eventually joined forces to fight the foreign Japanese but it was too little, too late; the Japanese had already successfully secured many key strongholds. With neither side able to gain any real advantage by 1940, the war had resulted in a deadlock (Sino-Japanese War). This is one of the attributing factors to Japan’s eventual attack on Pearl Harbor and other Pacific islands because Japan needed more resources to successfully win the fight in China. 

Roosevelt begins his speech by addressing congress and all of those assembled about how the United States was still at peace with the country of Japan until yesterday when, “the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” Peace is a relative term in this instance because although the United States was not in direct conflict with Japan or her allies, the US had placed multiple embargos and other economic sanctions to show their distaste for Japan’s ideals of expansion in the Pacific (Pearl Harbor). The embargos and other economic sanctions were first implemented when Japan began its war in China. Tensions continued to grow following Japan’s departure from the League of Nations, the world’s modern day United Nations, in 1933 to pursue their new foreign policy called “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere” (Pearl Harbor). This Japanese Sphere of Influence that they were attempting to create led to the ideal of Japanese Imperialism. Japanese Imperialism similarly reflected the ideals of the United States and other global superpowers in the 19th century, such as the American ideal of manifest destiny. Manifest destiny is the 19th-century belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents were both justified and inevitable. Japan’s “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere” mirrored these values but instead they believed that Asia was theirs for the taking. Because of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt then tells his audience that Japan had given the United States a formal message stating that further diplomatic options would be hereby useless (A Pearl Harbor Timeline).

FDR states that because of the distance between the two countries, it is very obvious that the attack was coordinated well in advance and that that the Japanese had succeeded in misleading the United States (“For A Declaration of War”).  This is true in some sense but the majority of America did now know about the secret messages that the United States had successfully intercepted and decoded messages containing plans of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (A Timeline of Pearl Harbor). A U.S. ambassador to Japan originally discovered them in January of 1941 but Senior Officials of the U.S. decided to not trust this information. Even after another message was decoded in September of 1941 that requested a detailed map of specific positions on the islands of Hawaii, nothing was done. It was up to the commanding officers of Hawaii to plan for the defense of the islands in the event of an attack but none of this intelligence was shared with them (A Timeline of Pearl Harbor). If diplomatic reasoning did not work in Japanese favor, then they were fully prepared to launch their secret invasion, which is sadly what happened.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was not all that happened on the day of December 7th, 1941, Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, Wake Island, and Midway Island were all attacked unprovoked (“For A Declaration of War”). This shows the extent of planning that went into this invasion and president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) responds by stating that he has, “directed that all measures be taken for our defense, that always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.” This is the first rally call of the war, asking the American people to get behind him and the nation to fight the oppressive Japanese forces. The attack on Pearl Harbor did not just affect the American people however; it would forever change the course of global history because of Japan’s signing of the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in 1940, effectively pairing the three as allies (Pearl Harbor). By declaring war on Japan, the U.S. was effectively finally joining the war on both fronts because of the treaty that Japan had signed. The U.S. was not officially at war in Europe until December 11, 1941, when Germany and Italy declared war on America. In fact, after learning of the success of the attack, Hitler stated, “Now we can’t lose the war! We have an ally that has not been defeated in 3,000 years of history” (Pearl Harbor). Hitler was referring to his Japanese ally but could not have been more foolish in his statement because he did not understand the ferocity that Americans would fight and die for the ideals that they embodied as a nation. 

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing defeat for the United States Navy in the Pacific Ocean. The two-hour onslaught sunk five battleships, three light cruisers, three destroyers and 188 aircraft were lost in the attack. The Americans were only able to bring down 27 Japanese planes and sunk five Japanese submarines. The U.S. got lucky in the fact that all of the aircraft carriers that belonged to the Pacific Fleet were out at sea and therefore got through the battle unscathed. 2,355 servicemen and 68 civilians were killed during the attack while over 1,000 other soldiers and civilians were wounded (The History Place). Because of the time difference between Hawaii and the rest of the continental United States, the news of the attack spread rapidly because it was Sunday afternoon for the rest of the nation. The news sparked outrage among Americans and caused many young American men to enlist in the Armed Forces. This influx of new soldiers would prove to be crucial as the American servicemen helped to rally the rundown soldiers fighting on the European front. 

Knowing all of this information leads to only one logical solution, declaring war against the Empire of Japan. That is exactly what Roosevelt asks of congress and his fellow Americans in his “For a Declaration of War” address to congress. Many Americans would simply only need to hear of the attack on Pearl Harbor to be convinced to declare outright war on Japan, but knowing the history that went into the decision, sheds a new light on what could have been done to avert this disaster. Many American lives could have been saved if the proper steps had been taken to share the crucial information that had been found, but the blame rests on no individual person but instead on the country as a whole for neglecting the United States duty as a global mediator. Understanding the history leading up to the attacks on Pearl Harbor allows for a better interpretation of FDR’s address to Congress declaring war on the Empire of Japan.  
