December 7, 1941 was, as President Roosevelt said a day later when he asked Congress for a declaration of war, “A date which will live in infamy.” HIs speech lasted seven minutes. The attack united the American people who had been bitterly divided on the matter of entering the war that was consuming Europe – France conquered, Great Britain neutered, the Soviet Union teetering – or remaining, somehow, neutral.
Earlier that year, the drafting of military aged men was upheld in Congress by a single vote. The vote to declare war would have been unanimous except for the dissent of Congresswoman Jeannette Pickering Rankin of Montana.
A German declaration of war on the U.S. on December 11 ended any debate. The U.S. was all in.
There may be few firm analogies between that time and ours. But two things do seem striking. First, the extent to which the attack on Pearl Harbor did truly unify the country. But, then, that happened after September 11, too.
And, then, there is the fact that six months after Pearl Harbor, the United States destroyed a Japanese fleet at Midway, took the offensive, and was winning the war. It lasted another three years and ended with the unconditional surrender of Japan.
More than 2,400 were Americans were killed in the attack.
