A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

The Setting: At 7:53 am on Sunday, December 7, 1941, approximately 184 Japanese bomber and fighter planes began the first wave of attacks on Pearl Harbor Naval Station.

Through a series of miscommunications, the American fleet was totally unprepared for the attack and, in the end, 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians were killed and 1,178 were wounded. Almost half of the casualties came from the USS Arizona which lost 1,104. The ship still lies at the bottom of the harbor and is the site of the Pearl Harbor memorial.
Photo by Verna Bice.

Following are the first and last paragraphs of FDR's Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation, given on December 8, 1941.

Yesterday, December 7th, 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.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.