Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation: Compare and Contrast

Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation: Compare and Contrast

Japanese Government, "Fourteen Part Message," December 7, 1941

By the time this memo found its way into the hands of U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull at 2:20 PM eastern time on December 7, 1941, it had become pretty clear that Japan and America's dog days...

Emperor Hirohito, "Accepting the Potsdam Declaration," August 14, 1945

Also known as the "Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War" and the "Jewel Voice Broadcast," this petite but powerful speech is probably the first time ever that a Japanese Emperor addresse...

General Douglas MacArthur, "Today the Guns are Silent," September 2, 1945

You know you're kind of a big deal when one of your job duties is to literally oversee the surrender of Japan and, basically, the end of World War II.And General Douglas MacArthur was kind of a big...

Winston Churchill, "Address to Joint Session of U.S. Congress," December 26, 1941

There ain't no party like a west coast party, but British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was anxious to remind his American BFFs that there were quite a few activities taking place across from th...

Harold Ickes, "What Is an American?," May 18, 1941

In the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was in the middle of quite the identity crisis. On the one hand, America had always prided itself on keeping its fingers as...

J. Robert Oppenheimer, "Speech to the Association of Los Alamos Scientists," November 2, 1945

We're thinking of something that is terrifying, powerful, incredible, and awe-inspiring, all at the same time. It was a game-changer in a seriously mind-blowing way, and debates about the ethics an...