O N T H E D E C L A R A T I O N O F W A R

from

A F I R E S I D E C H A T

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–––––––––––––––––– Franklin Delano Roosevelt –––––––––––––––––

The sudden criminal attacks perpetrated by the Japanese in the Pacific

provide the climax of a decade of international immorality.

Powerful and resourceful gangsters have banded together to make war upon

the whole human race. Their challenge has now been flung at the United States

of America. The Japanese have treacherously violated the longstanding peace

between us. Many American soldiers and sailors have been killed by enemy

action. American ships have been sunk, American airplanes have been

destroyed.

The Congress and the people of the United States have accepted that

challenge.

Together with other free peoples, we are now fighting to maintain our right to

live among our world neighbors in freedom and in common decency, without

fear of assault.

I have prepared the full record of our past relations with Japan, and it will be

submitted to the Congress. It begins with the visit of Commodore Perry to Japan

eighty-eight years ago. It ends with the visit of two Japanese emissaries to the

Secretary of State last Sunday, an hour after Japanese forces had loosed their

bombs and machine guns against our flag, our forces and our citizens.

I can say with utmost confidence that no Americans, today or a thousand

years hence, need feel anything but pride in our patience and our efforts

through all the years toward achieving a peace in the Pacific which would be fair

and honorable to every nation, large or small. And no honest person, today or a

thousand years hence, will be able to suppress a sense of indignation and horror

at the treachery committed by the military dictators of Japan, under the very

shadow of the flag of peace borne by their special envoys in our midst.

The course that Japan has followed for the past ten years in Asia has

paralleled the course of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe and Africa. Today it has

become far more than a parallel. It is collaboration so well calculated that all

the continents of the world, and all the oceans, are now considered by the Axis

strategists as one gigantic battlefield.

In 1931, Japan invaded Manchukuo—without warning.

In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia—without warning.

In 1938, Hitler occupied Austria—without warning.

In 1939, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia—without warning.

Later in 1939, Hitler invaded Poland—without warning.

In 1940, Hitler invaded Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and

Luxembourg—without warning.

In 1940, Italy attacked France and later Greece—without warning.

In 1941, the Axis powers attacked Jugoslavia and Greece and they dominated

the Balkans—without warning.

In 1941, Hitler invaded Russia—without warning.

And now Japan has attacked Malaya and Thailand—and the United States—

without warning.

It is all of one pattern.

We are now in this war. We are all in it—all the way. Every single man,

woman and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our

American history. We must share together the bad news and the good news, the

defeats and the victories—the changing fortunes of war.

So far, the news has all been bad. We have suffered a serious set-back in

Hawaii. Our forces in the Philippines, which include the brave people of that

Commonwealth, are taking punishment, but are defending themselves

vigorously. The reports from Guam and Wake and Midway Islands are still

confused, but we must be prepared for the announcement that all these three

outposts have been seized.

The casualty lists of these first few days will undoubtedly be large. I deeply

feel the anxiety of all families of the men in our Armed Forces and the relatives

of people in cities which have been bombed. I can only give them my solemn

promise that they will get news just as quickly as possible.

This Government will put its trust in the stamina of the American people, and

will give the facts to the public as soon as two conditions have been fulfilled:

first, that the information has been definitely and officially confirmed; and,

second, that the release of the information at the time it is received will not

prove valuable to the enemy directly or indirectly.

Most earnestly I urge my countrymen to reject all rumors. These ugly little

hints of complete disaster fly thick and fast in war-time. They have to be

examined and appraised.…

Many rumors and reports which we now hear originate, of course, with

enemy sources. For instance, today the Japanese are claiming that as a result of

their one action against Hawaii they have gained naval supremacy in the Pacific.

This is an old trick of propaganda which has been used innumerable times by

the Nazis. The purposes of such fantastic claims are, of course, to spread fear

and confusion among us, and to goad us into revealing military information

which our enemies are desperately anxious to obtain.

Our Government will not be caught in this obvious trap—and neither will the

people of the United States.

It must be remembered by each and every one of us that our free and rapid

communication must be greatly restricted in war-time. It is not possible to

receive full, speedy, accurate reports from distant areas of combat.…

Of necessity there will be delays in officially confirming or denying reports of

operations, but we will not hide facts from the country if we know the facts and

if the enemy will not be aided by their disclosure.

To all newspapers and radio stations—all those who reach the eyes and ears

of the American people—I say this: You have a most grave responsibility to the

nation now and for the duration of this war.

If you feel that your Government is not disclosing enough of the truth, you

have every right to say so. But—in the absence of all the facts, as revealed by

official sources—you have no right, in the ethics of patriotism, to deal out

unconfirmed reports in such a way as to make people believe they are gospel

truth.

Every citizen, in every walk of life, shares this same responsibility. The lives

of our soldiers and sailors—the whole future of our nation—depend upon the

manner in which each and every one of us fulfills his obligation to our

country.…

It will not only be a long war, it will be a hard war. That is the basis on which

we now lay all our plans. That is the yardstick by which we measure what we

shall need and demand; money, materials, doubled and quadrupled

production—ever-increasing. The production must be not only for our own

Army and Navy and Air Forces. It must reinforce the other armies and navies

and air forces fighting the Nazis and the war lords of Japan throughout the

Americas and the world.

I have been working today on the subject of production. Your Government

has decided on two broad policies.

The first is to speed up all existing production by working on a seven day

week basis in every war industry, including the production of essential raw

materials.

The second policy, now being put in form, is to rush additions to the capacity

of production by building more new plants, by adding to old plants, and by

using the many smaller plants for war needs.

Over the hard road of the past months, we have at times met obstacles and

difficulties, divisions and disputes, indifference and callousness. That is now all

past—and, I am sure, forgotten.

The fact is that the country now has an organization in Washington built

around men and women who are recognized experts in their own fields. I think

the country knows that the people who are actually responsible in each and

every one of these many fields are pulling together with a teamwork that has

never before been excelled.

On the road ahead there lies hard work—grueling work—day and night,

every hour and every minute.

I was about to add that ahead their lies sacrifice for all of us.

But it is not correct to use that word. The United States does not consider it a

sacrifice to do all one can, to give one’s best to our Nation, when the Nation is

fighting for its existence and its future life.

It is not a sacrifice for any man, old or young, to be in the Army or the Navy

of the United States. Rather it is a privilege.

It is not a sacrifice for the industrialist or the wage-earner, the farmer or the

shopkeeper, the trainman or the doctor, to pay more taxes, to buy more bonds,

to forego extra profits, to work longer or harder at the task for which he is best

fitted. Rather it is a privilege.…

I am sure that the people in every part of the nation are prepared in their

individual living to win this war. I am sure they will cheerfully help to pay a

large part of its financial cost while it goes on. I am sure they will cheerfully give

up those material things they are asked to give up.

I am sure that they will retain all those great spiritual things without which

we cannot win through.

I repeat that the United States can accept no result save victory, final and

complete. Not only must the shame of Japanese treachery be wiped out, but the

sources of international brutality, wherever they exist, must be absolutely and

finally broken.

In my message to the Congress yesterday I said that we “will make very

certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.” In order to

achieve that certainty, we must begin the great task that is before us by

abandoning once and for all the illusion that we can ever again isolate ourselves

from the rest of humanity.

In these past few years—and, most violently, in the past few days—we have

learned a terrible lesson.

It is our obligation to our dead—it our sacred obligation to their children and

our children—that we must never forget what we have learned.

And what we all have learned is this:

There is no such thing as security for any nation—or any individual—in a

world ruled by the principles of gangsterism.

There is no such thing as impregnable defense against powerful aggressors

who sneak up in the dark and strike without warning.

We have learned that our ocean-girt hemisphere is not immune from severe

attack—that we can not measure our safety in terms of miles on any map any

more.

We may acknowledge that our enemies have performed a brilliant feat of

deception, perfectly timed and executed with great skill. It was a thoroughly

dishonorable deed, but we must face the fact that modern warfare as conducted

in the Nazi manner is a dirty business. We don’t like it—we didn’t want to get in

it—but we are in it and we’re going to fight it with everything we’ve got.…

The true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. When

we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be

directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. We Americans

are not destroyers—we are builders.

We are now in the midst of a war, not for conquest, not for vengeance, but

for a world in which this Nation, and all that this Nation represents, will be safe

for our children. We expect to eliminate the danger from Japan, but it would

serve us ill if we accomplished that and found that the rest of the world was

dominated by Hitler and Mussolini.

We are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows.

And in the difficult hours of this day—and through dark days that may be yet

to come—we will know that the vast majority of the members of the human

race are on our side. Many of them are fighting with us. All of them are praying

for us. For, in representing our cause, we represent theirs as well—our hope

and their hope for liberty under God.