"a date which will live in infamy"

The White House Historical Association
December 7, 2017 ·

Sunday, December 7, 1941 began as a quiet day at the White House. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt entertained a small group of visitors at a luncheon in the State Dining Room. President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not join them, instead taking his lunch in the Oval Office with close advisor Harry Hopkins.

At 1:40 p.m., the phone rang. Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, had a distressing message for the president: Japanese Imperial forces had attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the American fleet. Less than an hour later, the news was confirmed. World War II had reached American soil.

Inside the White House, the president took swift action. He issued two press statements and called together members of his Cabinet and high-ranking military officials in what became his first council of war. While they talked, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called with more news. Japanese forces had also attacked the strategic British colony of Malaya, and Churchill planned to declare war on Japan. Hopkins later recalled the conversation between the two leaders. “We [are] all in the same boat now,” President Roosevelt told the prime minister, and he would ask Congress for a declaration of war the next day.

Eleanor Roosevelt described the president’s composure as “deadly calm” as he and his staff developed a plan of action. He brushed off suggestions for greater security at the White House. “You’ve doubled the [White House] guard. That’s all you need,” he told the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr.

Meanwhile, anxious crowds gathered outside the White House fence. The Washington Evening Star described the scene: “Later in the evening, as a misty three-quarter moon shone over the White House, about a thousand gathered across the street in Lafayette Park to watch the Cabinet officers and members of Congress drive up for the emergency conference… The shrill voices of newsboys calling war extras broke the ordinary Sabbath calm.” Strains of “God Bless America” reached those inside the White House as the crowd spontaneously broke out in song.

The next day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress and a stunned nation. He began by calling December 7, 1941 “a date which will live in infamy” and concluded by asking Congress for a declaration of war. “We will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God.” Later that day, Congress declared war on Japan, and four days later Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Across the nation, Americans braced for war.