Dbq Pearl Harbor Speech

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In only two hours, more than 2,400 innocent lives were taken, 1,000 additional people were wounded, 20 U.S. ships were destroyed, along with over 300 airplanes. Most Americans would consider this one of the deadliest attacks in the history of the United States (Maranzani, “5 Facts About Pearl Harbor and USS Arizona”). Seventy-five years ago today, the Japanese rained bombs and bullets down upon the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor. The attack caused a lot of debate on if America should declare war on Japan in return. On December 8, 1941, one day after the attack, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), 32nd President of the United States, presented his “Pearl Harbor Speech” to explain what had just happened, how he felt, and how the United States should deal with the situation. His purpose is to inform his audience what has provoked his decision to go to war with Japan, persuade Congress to declare war, and …show more content…

The intent of the speech was to inform Congress of why they should declare war on Japan and encourage citizens to join the war. To support his claim, Roosevelt efficiently uses ethos to gain the trust of Congress and the nation. He also utilizes parallelism to show what is important to him, and lastly applies anaphora to make it evident that the Japanese attack was premeditated. These three rhetorical choices strongly supported Roosevelt’s speech and helped him achieve the outcome he wanted. Within an hour of FDR’s speech, Congress officially declared war on the Empire of Japan, entering the United States into World War II. Later in the war, Americans had gotten their revenge on Japan with air attacks and atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (“Consequences of the Attack on Pearl Harbor”). December 7, 1941 is a “date that will live in infamy” (Roosevelt

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