Infamy Speech Analysis

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“A day that will live in infamy,” a quote we’ve all heard at one point or another in our lives. But for most of us, the context behind the quote isn’t quite so known. The phrase comes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president’s, “infamy speech” which he gave the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. He had a multitude of reasons for giving this speech which included consoling citizens around the nation, although his main purpose was to persuade the public to rally behind him in his effort to go to war with Japan, and evidently join WWll which was happening simultaneously.

At approximately 8:00 am, Hawaiian time, an array of over 353 Japanese warplanes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The bombing lasted only a couple hours and killed more than 2,300 American soldiers and injured over 1000. The attack resulted from Japan attempting to convince the US to end economic sanctions against them for declaring war on China, but evidently failed. By the time the attack was over, every battleship in the Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Utah, USS Maryland, USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee and USS Nevada—had all sustained …show more content…

The “infamy speech” itself became infamous for the array of devastation that it brought about to the world. And while FDR’s speech was successful in persuading the public to rally behind him and the military, one can sit back knowing what we know now and wonder what the world would be like if this one piece of writing would have never been brought to the congressional floor all those years ago in such an unstable time in our country 's history. We can now see the effect this one, 7 minute speech, has had on not just our country but the world as a whole and why it has stayed such an “infamous” speech throughout the