Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation

Tori Geniac

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

• The speaker • Also, the author• Fixed all but one change of the original • The 32nd president, and president at the time of

the attack• Only president to stay longer than 2 terms, his

election lasted 4• Born Jan 30th, 1882, he was 59 at the time of the

attack and the speech

The speech itself

• Written and edited by Franklin D. Roosevelt• Only one change made by another, Harry Hopkins• 3 drafts• Every word was carefully chosen• Origin of nickname ‘Day of Infamy’ for Dec. 7th,

1941.• The speech was meant to be a call to arms, and a

justification for the upcoming shortages and drafts

To whom was he speaking?

• To the congress• To the citizens of the U.S.• To the Japanese• To the world as a whole that we will take

justifiable actions of defense

The message

• To Congress: We’ve been attacked, our plan of action should be war.

• To the citizens of the US: We have been attacked. Gather and prepare yourselves for war. In your “righteous might” we shall have “absolute victory”. It is now us vs them, and we will win.

• To the Japanese and the rest of the world: We will “make it very certain” that this attack, this “form of treachery shall never again endanger us”.

What was this all about? The Attack on Pearl Harbor

• The attack occurred on December 7th, 1941 commencing at 7:48am Hawaiian time

• The attackers were the Japanese in the form of 353 fighter planes, bombers and torpedo planes launched from six aircraft carriers in two waves

• Where? Pearl Harbor military base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii• Why Pearl Harbor? Because of the American military base stationed

there and the distance from the mainland which provided relative safety from an immediate counterattack

• 2,403 men were killed, which FDR mentions in his speech in an effort or pathos, 1,178 wounded

• Of the Japanese soldiers, only 64 were killed

Tone

• The tone is rousing, through the use of words such as righteous, absolute victory, confidence, inevitable triumph. He is instilling a sense of courage

• Another tone FDR uses is sorrowful, but its used in an effort to unite the common people, through the use of words such as I regret, attack, lives have been lost.

Repetition of words

• Deliberately: FDR repeats this to show that there is no mistaking that this was purposeful

• Attacked/attack: this word is repeated 10 times. 6 of these are used in short, choppy sentences with the purpose to catch the audiences attention and to highlight the importance of their meaning and delivery.

• Empire of Japan: An empire is seen as un-American, as evil, this is an attempt to separate the US further from the Japanese.

Ethos

• As President FDR has Automatic ethos• “As commander in chief of the Army and

Navy” he re-establishes his ethos in a show of American Power

Pathos

• “ I regret to tell you”… FDR is instilling attempting to rile the American Public through a sense of loss

• “Very many lives have American lives have been lost”, American is important here because it calls on the grief of the American community

• By naming the places attacked, FDR makes the attack personal, the tragedies personal, to each American citizen

Effectiveness

Was the speech effective? Although it was a short speech, only 6 minutes long, did it get the point across? Did you feel connected to other Americans through a sense of loss and a want for justice? The importance of this speech has been ranked up there with the inauguration speeches of many presidents, and it has earned it place there, don’t you agree?

Sources

• "Prologue: Selected Articles." National Archives. N.p., 2001. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

• Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.