Script: Pearl Harbor: the day a divided country came together, 1941

On Saturday, December 6, 1941, Americans were still arguing about whether to fight this war. Two days later, Congress voted for war with a single dissenting vote. This is the story of a divided country, and the attack that ended the argument.

World War II had been raging in Europe since 1939. The United States was officially neutral, and Britain was running out of money to buy the weapons it needed.

Americans were split in a particular way. In December 1940, Gallup asked whether it was more important to keep out of the war or to help England win, even at the risk of war. Sixty percent said help England. Forty percent said keep out.

But that same month, Gallup asked how people would vote on entering the war against Germany and Italy. Eighty-eight percent said stay out. Most Americans wanted to help Britain. Most did not want to fight.

In December 1940 President Roosevelt told Americans, in a radio address, on December 29:

“We must be the great arsenal of democracy.”

In January 1941 Congress took up a bill numbered H.R. 1776. It let the president sell, lend or lease defense supplies to any country whose defense he judged vital to America's own.

Opponents included Senators Robert Taft and Burton Wheeler, who warned about the power it handed the president. Wendell Willkie, the 1940 Republican nominee, backed aid to Britain. The House passed the bill on February 8, 260 to 165. The Senate passed an amended version on March 8, and Roosevelt signed it on March 11, 1941.

Outside Congress, a movement formed to keep the country out of the war. The America First Committee was launched in September 1940 and grew to more than 800,000 members. The aviator Charles Lindbergh became its most prominent voice.

The press was divided too. On January 13, 1941, the Omaha World-Herald published an editorial against the Lend-Lease bill. It objected to an "unprecedented delegation of the war-making power." On March 1, the Bismarck Tribune also published an editorial opposing it. Both were read into the Congressional Record. The two editorials we could confirm were both opposed. That reflects what we found, not every paper's view.

In August 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill met aboard warships off Newfoundland. Their joint statement of shared goals became known as the Atlantic Charter. It was a statement, not a treaty. And as late as November, America First was still criticizing the administration's handling of Japan.

Then, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Hundreds of planes launched from six aircraft carriers. They struck the airfields across the island of Oahu as well as the ships in the harbor. None of the Pacific Fleet's own aircraft carriers were in Pearl Harbor that morning. The Enterprise was about 215 miles west of Oahu, and the Saratoga was at San Diego. A second wave of 170 aircraft followed the first.

The attack lasted less than two hours. The battleship USS Arizona exploded, and more than 1,100 of its crew died. In all, 2,403 Americans were killed, including 68 civilians, and 1,178 were wounded. Most of the ships sunk or destroyed that day were later raised and rebuilt. The Arizona, the Oklahoma and the Utah were not.

The next day, December 8, President Roosevelt went to Congress and gave the speech now known as the Day of Infamy speech. Film of him delivering it plays at the end of this video. In it he said:

“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.”

Within about an hour of his speech, Congress voted. The Senate voted 82 to 0. The House voted 388 to 1. The one no vote came from Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a pacifist who had also voted against entering World War One. Roosevelt signed the declaration of war at 4:00 that afternoon. The United States was now at war with Japan alone.

The people who had argued hardest to stay out changed course within days. On December 8, Charles Lindbergh, the America First movement's best-known voice, issued a statement through the committee:

“Now it has come and we must meet it as united Americans regardless of our attitude in the past toward the policy our government has followed.”

He asked to be returned to military service, and Roosevelt refused.

Even Herbert Hoover, the former president who had opposed Roosevelt's foreign policies, issued a statement in New York on December 8. It said:

“Our decision is clear. It is forced upon us.”

A Gallup survey taken December 12 to 17 asked: "Do you approve, or disapprove of Congress declaring war against Japan?" Ninety-seven percent approved. Two percent disapproved.

On December 11, the America First Committee voted to disband. At its peak it had more than 800,000 members. Four days after the attack, the largest organization built to keep America out of the war ended itself.

That same day, December 11, Hitler told the Reichstag that Germany was at war with the United States, and Italy joined him. Congress declared war on Germany and Italy the same day. Until then, the United States had declared war only on Japan. The war in Asia and the war in Europe had become one war.

Both of those Gallup results could be true in 1940: most Americans wanted Britain to win, and most did not want to send Americans to fight. By December 11, 1941, that question had been settled by events.

The country that went to war that week was already building aircraft. According to a Navy historical publication, American factories made 26,277 aircraft in 1941. In 1944, they made 96,318.

Germany surrendered in May 1945. Japan announced its surrender in August, and signed it on September 2, 1945, aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. So what did Japan's decision to attack mean for the outcome?

Historians still argue about how much weight to give the attack itself, and how much to give Hitler's declaration of war four days later. What is not in dispute is the sequence: a country that had been split over whether to fight was, within four days, at war with Japan, Germany and Italy.

That is the story of a country divided over whether to fight, and the day that ended the argument. We show every side, and the choice is yours. Find more at politicalwatercooler.com.

Here is film of President Roosevelt delivering his Day of Infamy speech to Congress on December 8, 1941.

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