A date which will live in infamy is how President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to refer to the attack on Pearl Harbor, such was its brutality and callousness in the minds of the American public. On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise and largely unprovoked military attack on the US naval base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Pearl Harbor was the home of the US Navys Pacific Fleet and the Japanese intention was to blunt Americas power in order to allow expansion of their own empire further into the region. The attack gave FDR the excuse he had wanted to enter the Second World War on the Allied side, and he declared war against the Japanese the following day. American newspapers understandably led with the story, with the New York Daily News headline reading: JAPS BOMB HAWAII DECLARE WAR ON US AND BRITAIN. The bold and vivid font used highlighted the brutal nature of the attack and its colossal consequences a European conflict had now well and truly turned into a World War.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
