| Original caption: “Annotated Draft of Proposed Message to Congress Requesting Declaration of War Against Japan.” In the early afternoon of December 7, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt was just finishing lunch in his oval study on the 2nd floor of the White House, preparing to work on his stamp album, when his telephone rang. The White House operator announced that Secretary of the Navy W. Frank Knox (January 1, 1874 – April 28, 1944) was on the line and insisted on talking with him. Roosevelt took the call. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, just before 0800 Hours Hawaii time, Secretary Knox told the President. Harry L. Hopkins (August 17, 1890 – January 29, 1946), a top aide who was with Roosevelt at the time, could not believe the report. But Roosevelt did. “It was just the kind of unexpected thing the Japanese would do. At the very time they were discussing peace in the Pacific, they were plotting to overthrow it,” he said. For the rest of that afternoon, Roosevelt and his advisers were busy at the White House receiving fragmentary reports about the damage to United States installations, ships, and planes in Hawaii. Security was increased around the White House, and plans for a bomb shelter for the President underneath the nearby Treasury Department building were under way. Across the nation, news of the attack spread by radio and word of mouth, and Americans began thinking about what life in a nation at war was going to be like. Roosevelt decided to go before Congress the next day to report on the attack and ask for a declaration of war. In early evening, he called in his secretary, Grace Tully (August 9, 1900 – June 15, 1984). “Sit down, Grace,” he said. “I’m going before Congress tomorrow, and I’d like to dictate my message. It will be short.” Short it was. But it was to become 1 of the most famous speeches of the 20th century, giving birth to 1 of the most famous phrases of the century. “Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in world history,” he began as Tully took down the words, “the United States was simultaneously and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” Biographer Nathan Miller (May 26, 1927 – October 22, 2004) recalls: “He inhaled deeply on his cigarette, blew out the smoke, and began dictating in the same calm tone he used to deal with his mail. He enunciated the words incisively and slowly, carefully specifying each punctuation mark and new paragraph. Running little more than five hundred words, the message was dictated without hesitation or second thoughts.” Tully typed up what Roosevelt had dictated, and the President went to work on this 1st draft by hand. On the 1st draft, Roosevelt changed “a date which will live in world history” to “a date which will live in infamy,” providing the speech its most famous phrase and giving birth to the term, “day of infamy,” which December 7, 1941, is often called. A few words later, he changed his report that the United States of America was “simultaneously and deliberately attacked” to “suddenly and deliberately attacked.” At the end of the 1st sentence, he wrote the words, “without warning,” but later crossed them out. Thus, that 1st historic sentence—the 1 that is usually quoted from the speech—was born: “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” There were other changes in that 1st draft also. At 1 point, Roosevelt noted that the distance from Japan to Hawaii meant that the attack must have been planned “many days ago.” He changed that to “many days or even weeks ago.” Historians now know that the Japanese had considered a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor for many years. Drafts No. 1 and the 3rd draft have Roosevelt’s handwriting all over them, but there are none of his marks on the 2nd draft, which makes only 1 change from the 1st draft-that of the famous 1st sentence. Apparently Roosevelt took back his marked-up 1st draft and made more revisions, which became the 3rd draft. Writes Halford R. Ryan (December 29, 1943 – May 15, 2018): “It [a second draft] contains his emendations from draft one. Curiously, however, he did not make changes on draft two but went back to draft one and made corrections on it. That is, draft one has words on it that are not in draft two but are in draft three: therefore, draft three is actually a compilation of changes on draft one.” Roosevelt updated the speech too, as reports of Japanese actions arrived at the White House, adding lines to note Japanese attacks on Guam and the Philippine Islands. He also added a sentence near the end of the text: “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people will in their righteous might win through to absolute victory.” In other revisions, the President added further sentences to note Japanese attacks on Hong Kong, Malaya, Wake Island, and Midway Island. 2 of Roosevelt’s speechwriters, Samuel I. Rosenman (February 13, 1896 – June 24, 1973) and Robert E. Sherwood (April 4, 1896 – November 14, 1955), were in New York City on December 7 and did not participate in drafting the speech; the President handled this 1 mostly by himself. During the editing of the various drafts, Roosevelt rejected a longer version by Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles, which reviewed the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, Hopkins had a few minor word changes and 1 significant addition (which he labeled “Deity”)—the next to the last paragraph, which read: “With confidence in our armed forces, with faith in our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God.” At some point, it was expanded to “With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God.” Along with the 1st sentence, it became 1 of the most often heard quotes from the speech. Rosenman, Sherwood, and Hopkins were usually involved in drafting major speeches, along with others in the government, depending on the subject. Usually, a speech took from 3 to 10 days to prepare, far longer than the December 8 speech. But Rosenman insisted that all the speeches eventually were Roosevelt’s. “The speeches as finally delivered were his-and his alone-no matter who the collaborators were. He had gone over every point, every word, time and again. He had studied, reviewed, and read aloud each draft, and had changed it again and again, either in his own handwriting, by dictating inserts, or making deletions. Because of the many hours he spent in its preparation, by the time he delivered a speech he knew it almost by heart.” Rosenman also wrote: “The remarkable thing is that on one of the busiest and most turbulent days of his life, he was able to spend so much time and give so much thought to his speech.” Roosevelt’s speech amounted to a call to arms for a national audience that would suddenly need to shift to a war footing that meant wage and price controls; shortages of food, fuel, and other strategic materials; and, of course, the induction into the armed forces of their sons, husbands, fathers, and sweethearts. The next day, at 1230 Hours, in the House of Representatives, Roosevelt delivered his 6-minute address to a joint session of Congress and a nationwide radio audience. He was interrupted several times by applause and departed only a few times from the wording on the final draft of the speech, which included 4 minor handwritten changes. 1 of them qualifies the sentence “In addition American ships have been torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.” Roosevelt used the term “reported torpedoed.” When Roosevelt delivered the speech, most of his on-the-spot changes involved word order. But many people had never heard of Oahu, the Hawaiian island on which Pearl Harbor and Honolulu are located, so it became “the American island of Oahu” to establish the fact that America had been attacked. And the sentence “Very many American lives have been lost” became “I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost.” In fact, 2,403 Americans died in the attack. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1744.jpg |
| Image Size | 2.61 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 7000 x 3150 |
| Photographer | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Photographer Title | United States President |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | December 8, 1941 |
| Location | |
| City | Washington |
| State or Province | District of Columbia |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | 593345 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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