“A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”

Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

EIGHTY-TWO YEARS AGO, on December 7, 1941, at 7:55 a.m. local time, a surprise attack was conducted by Japanese naval forces on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, addressing a joint session of Congress, called it “a date which will live in infamy.”  He vowed:

“But always will our whole Nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.”

So today, the Thomas More Law Center asks you to remember that infamous date, when after two hours of bombing, 21 U.S. ships were sunk or damaged, 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed, 2,403 Americans were killed, and another 1,282 were wounded.  All of this happened while the U.S. and Japan were officially engaging in diplomatic negotiations for possible peace in Asia.

The continually ignored lesson of Pearl Harbor is that the guard post of liberty and peace is eternal vigilance.

Please watch this short video of President Roosevelt's address to the joint session of Congress.

Click on Video Here

Within an hour of Roosevelt's speech, Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan.

God bless America.

Richard Thompson

President and Chief Counsel
Thomas More Law Center