FDR Has Nothing Nice To Say…And Says It Anyway
- After a brief shout-out to Veep Henry Wallace, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, and the joint houses of Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt informs his audience that Japanese air and naval forces have attacked Pearl Harbor.
- And this, he says, after the U.S. and Japan had been having conversations about preserving peace in the South Pacific. We can almost see the beet-red frowny-face this duplicitousness caused.
- Adding insult to injury (lots and lots of injury), Japan had already been bombing up the joint for an hour when FDR's Secretary of State was passed a note by Ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura telling him Japan didn't want to be friends anymore.
- But even though the note ended the friendship, it didn't say anything about launching a huge military attack. Not one peep.
- Of course, FDR says, it's pretty obvious that Japan's been planning this for a while. It's not like the planes and submarines just teleported themselves to Hawaii; it would've taken them some time to organize this little affair.
- Which is even more aggravating because this whole time, Japan's been acting like it was cool with the U.S. and was committed to improving relations. Guess that cat's out of the bag, Japan. And everyone is gonna know about it now.