Across the nation, news of the attack spread by radio and word of mouth, and Americans began thinking about what life in a nation at war was going to be like.įranklin Roosevelt's changes to the first draft of his speech are clearly visible on 'Draft No.

Security was increased around the White House, and plans for a bomb shelter for the President underneath the nearby Treasury Department building were under way. installations, ships, and planes in Hawaii. 1įor the rest of that afternoon, sixty years ago, Roosevelt and his advisers were busy at the White House receiving fragmentary reports about the damage to U.S. At the very time they were discussing peace in the Pacific, they were plotting to overthrow it,' he said. 'It was just the kind of unexpected thing the Japanese would do. Harry Hopkins, a top aide who was with Roosevelt at the time, could not believe the report. Hawaii time, Secretary Knox told the President. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, just before 8 a.m. The White House operator announced that Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was on the line and insisted on talking with him. Roosevelt was just finishing lunch in his oval study on the second floor of the White House, preparing to work on his stamp album, when his telephone rang. In the early afternoon of December 7, 1941, Franklin D. The USS Arizona seen burning after the attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the morning of December 7, 1941.

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