Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Pearl Harbor” Speech

Questions for Further Study

• 1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's joint address to Congress conveys the impression that the United States was caught completely by surprise. Yet American commanders  in the Pacific had been warned of impending hostile action against American bases, especially in the Philippines. By December 1 the president was discussing the imminent threat of war with the British ambassador. Compare the president's address to what historians now know about the events leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack. Why did Roosevelt omit any mention of U.S. suspicion of an impending Japanese attack?
• 2. The attack on Pearl Harbor signaled  the  end of any peaceful accommodation with Japan. What measures did the U.S. government take to “check” Japan, and why did these measures fail? Why did President Roosevelt not discuss these measures in his joint address to Congress or with the American people?
• 3. While President Roosevelt presented the attack on Pearl Harbor as a complete surprise, historians have disagreed about the extent to which he should have anticipated such an attack based on the intelligence he was receiving about Japanese military plans. Ted Morgan, for example, suggests that the “signs pointing to Pearl Harbor were raindrops in a squall of messages. So what if the Japanese were asking about ship movements in Honolulu? They were asking about ship movements in a lot of other ports” (p. 605). Compare and contrast how other historians and biographers have assessed what Roosevelt knew about Japanese intentions at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack.
• 4. Most historians have rejected the conspiratorial charge that Roosevelt deliberately set up an attack on Pearl Harbor so as to involve the United States in World War II. Compare and contrast how historians and biographers have addressed this accusation.
• 5. To what extent has Franklin D. Roosevelt's character complicated the task of assessing how he felt about the imminence of war with Japan? Roosevelt's motives on the eve of war are  difficult to interpret. What components of the president's personality have made determining his mood on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack so challenging?
• 6. Compare and contrast the tone and substance of President Roosevelt's short Fourth Inaugural Address with his terse war message to Congress after the Pearl Harbor attack.
• 7. Compare and contrast President Roosevelt's stark address to Congress asking for a declaration of war against Japan with his radio address to the nation on December 9, 1941.
• 8. What themes remain consistent throughout Roosevelt's communications to the public regarding the prosecution of the war—from his War Message to Congress, to his radio address to the nation after the Pearl Harbor attack, to his subsequent annual messages to Congress, and to his Fourth Inaugural Address?