On this day, December 8, 1941, 84 years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) went to the U.S. Capitol and delivered the most important speech of his life. His speechwriters offered him carefully crafted lines. He rejected them – in favor of his own wording, remembered now as epic.
One day earlier, all hell had broken loose. While U.S. negotiators faithfully negotiated to get Japan to stop attacks on allied Pacific countries, with no hint of war, the Japanese planned to attack the U.S. fleet.
The best laid plans of mice, men, and the Japanese Empire often go astray. They did that day. Ironically, the attack was not to bring America into war, but to knock us out, so they could take local islands.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese – without warning – attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, home of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. From six carriers, 353 aircraft hit eight Battleships, sank four, killed 2,403 Americans, and wounded 1,178.
The hours just before and just after this event are worth understanding. They are profound because they teach us how much of what happens in life is neither expected nor well-calculated.
On the Japanese side, after FDR rejected peace proposals aimed at safeguarding U.S. territories but leaving Japan in charge of Asia, Japan got greedy. They imagined destroying the U.S. Navy, thought it would be relatively easy. The power of wishful thinking is a terrible caution, so very often wrong.
Japan began to imagine that U.S. territories across the Pacific, like the Philippines and Guam, would be fiercely defended by the U.S. if Japan tried to take them. Likelihood was likely that they would not have been. Never mind.
Japan thought the islands meant a great deal to us. As Japan wanted to consolidate them, the plan was to destroy the fleet at Pearl Harbor and go home, no punch back – more wishful thinking.
On the U.S. side, a strategic or cultural misunderstanding caused FDR to believe he could deter Japan – 4000 miles from Hawaii – by moving the fleet from San Diego to Hawaii. He did this in mid-1940, thinking that it represented a clear warning to Japan. Japan saw it as an invitation.
The miscalculations piled up. Japan decided to destroy the fleet but kept FDR unaware by continuing to negotiate a regional peace accord. A letter ending negotiations arrived an hour after the attack, that is, an hour late. It was hardly clear.
Intercepted by U.S. intelligence hours earlier, it contained no declaration of war, but just ended talks. Still, the Pentagon was worried, tried to warn Hawaii on the first Sunday of Advent, but not in time.
The Japanese miscalculated badly, since three U.S. aircraft carriers were out of harbor, on patrol. The harbor was shallow, allowing assets to be recovered. America went from shock to anger to resolve, and very quickly. Every recruiting station and base in the nation was overwhelmed with volunteers.
Within 33 minutes of FDR finishing his December 8, 1941 speech, Congress declared war on Japan, triggering a declaration of war on the U.S. by Germany and Italy, solidifying the WWII”s Axis, while opening the door to full U.S. support for Britain, and – given U.S. power when angry – sealing their fate.
On a personal note, while my maternal grandmother’s two brothers served in Europe – both buried at Arlington, with my paternal grandfather – I never got to speak with them. Closer to home, a conversation with a local Maine woman, then 100, Grace Burlegh, gave real insight.
Four young couples were having supper when the radio crackled with the Pearl Harbor attack. All four men rose, excused themselves, and went to the closest military base to volunteer on the spot.
Asked how things went from there, she said they all got married before the men left, including herself. All four men served, came home, and stayed friends. She recalled the FDR speech on December 8, 1941.
And so, here is “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say. Before FDR went to the Capitol, his advisors suggested he say: “Yesterday, December 7th, a date that will live in world history…”
FDR rejected those words, thought it was a day of “infamy.” “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.”
Those are the words Grace heard 84 years ago today on her radio – FDR’s epic words, opening America’s commitment to win World War II, his “Infamy Speech.”
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
