For nearly a decade, the Japanese had been expanding into China while the United States worked to thwart the encroachment (yet, ironically, all the while supplying Japan with 80% of its oil and iron ore). Tensions between the two countries remained high, as negotiations either failed or were dismissed. When Japan imperialistically sought to consolidate all of East Asia under its domain in 1941, the United States responded with diplomatic pressure and economic embargoes on goods vital to the Japanese economy. Japanese leaders concluded that to preserve their empire they must fight the United States soon, so preparations were made to attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and expand further in Asia. The United States had broken Japan’s diplomatic secret code and knew that some attack was imminent, but the location was not known. American leaders guessed the attack would come in Southeast Asia (possibly Malaya, possibly the Philippines), so only general warnings were sent to forces at Pearl Harbor. On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japanese planes stuck American forces at Pearl Harbor in two separate waves, crippling the Pacific fleet and killing more than 2,000 Americans. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt gave a speech to a joint session of Congress. You can read the speech by clicking here.After reading the speech, I would like you to think about and discuss the following: In what manner does Roosevelt characterize the actions of the Japanese? Why does he offer a listing of locations where the Japanese have attacked? How will the United States “make certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us?” Your thoughts…
12 comments:
When roosevelt says: "make certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us?”, he's baisicaly saying that he will destroy Japan and they will pay for what they did.
Looking toward the maintenance of peace in the pacific? Ha. That's why you dismissed negotiations and set embargoes? Roosevelt characterized the Japanese as trying to deceive the U.S. in order to make a more "Surprise" attack. He gives the list to make the Japanese seem like more of a threat and point out that they have also attacked Malaya and the Phillipines which were occupied by the U.S. In the end he declares war on Japan.
the actions of the Japanese are characterized as a "deliberately planned" attack.
Why does he offer a listing of locations where the Japanese have attacked? He lists the places where Japan has attacked to show where Japan has attacked that has US citizens or British citizens located. (were there and Americans in Hong Kong?)
The Us is planning on wiping Japan off the map because it's hard to endanger someone when you are dead. (specifically like with the atomic bomb)
He did try to make it sound like Japan was five times worse then they already are. He also sounded kinda of positive that they were gonna win this war. He was confident. But i dont see why he had to list all the other attacks that Japan made. Was it to make the congress against Japan even more?
& i agree with Matthew up there. When he said that, it did make him sound like the US was going to get revenge for the Japanese bombing on Pearl Harbor.
Roosevelt says that the Japanese attack was a complete surprise, which we learned today was totally expected. He also called it an "unprovoked and dastardly attack." You can't just stop giving 80% of a nation's oil without expecting some kind of revenge. Roosevelt offers a list of other bombings taken place by the Japanese to show how serious and horrible Japan is. It also gives more reason for Americans to despise and support later intentions of war. The United States will "make certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us" by declaring war and defending themselves.
Roosevelt says that the japanese's actions were very surprising and a great betrayel to the country.
he offers a listing of location of where the japanese have attacked to show the growingg intensity of the Japs and the need to stop them before they start hrting more americans.
he will defend the U.S and practically destroy japan.
"But this adds only to our determination to see to it that the Stars and Stripes will fly again over Wake and Guam; and that the brave people of the Philippines will be rid of Japanese imperialism, and will live in freedom, security, and independence."
Wow. Just wow. We make it sound like they were completely independant before the Japanese took over.
I never really realized what a good speaker Roosevelt was..that speech could have pumped me up for war! I didn't know Japan attacked all those countires in a matter of days. That really showed how serious the Japanese were about conquering territory, and i think that sorta scared the American people, which pushed them towards war. I also think its funny but bad how Rossevelt does lie to the American people, by saying that the attack was a complete suprise. I dont agree with that choice, because even today i still believed that it was a total suprise and that made it so much worse!
unprovoked? uh.. I'm pretty sure that the U.S. set embargoes on Japan- this is an official act of war. And to say that t was a surprise attack isnt eventrue- we knew it would be comming since we had intercepted som Japanese messages. We were jsut wrong about the location.
"[...]will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us." ..So no, this form of treachery will never again endanger US, but we ill perform this form of treachery again as intimidation and fear (nagasaki and hiroshima). Hm..
Roosevelt made it seem like the Pearl Harbor attack wasn't because of any American actions and was unprovoked, but like Alex said, an embargo is an act of war, which would make this unprovoked. Roosevelt probably listed the locations to make it seem like the Japanese were launching huge invasions in many places, when these places are a lot of islands. But most of the Americans don't know that because we're so Eurocentric and we don't learn about the geography of the rest of the world as much.
Roosevelt used this speech to spark the american people to action. Seemed like propaganda similar to the thoughts of world war 1. world war 2 was all about revenge.
In order to gain support for declaring war on Japan, Roosevelt adds a list in his speech of areas that Japan has already attacked to make them seem more dangerous and a threat. On top of this, Roosevelt said that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a previously meditated event which implied that the Japanese purposely brought harm to the United States and wanted to pick a fight. This convinced people that in order for safety, war is eminent. Key word being safety. People will go along with almost anything for the sake of safety in their own country.
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