Rhetorical Analysis Pearl Harbor Address To The Nation

Rhetorical Analysis of the “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation” by FDR The “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation” by FDR, also known as the infamy speech, is as good a speech as any. He attempts to rally the legislative branch to say that the United States should go to war with Japan, since they had attacked the U.S. without warning and with no provocation at Pearl Harbor. His speech was astoundingly successful, winning over all of the senate and all but one in the house of representatives. He made several good points, backing them up with known facts, which he laid out in a way that made sense logically and sparked emotion out of the audience.
The occasion on which the president spoke was the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, an attack by the 1940s Japanese Empire. The attack came without warning and the U.S. was shocked and fearful of another bombing by either Japan or another hostile country, until their president, FDR stepped in and turned their fear into passion for a war. America, after two years of keeping back, drew into the war. The war ended 4 years later in 1945 when Berlin fell

One reason for this is that people are not nearly as smart. FDR uses a lot of ‘big words’ and most in the modern society would not understand them. However, the main reason I see for this speech not being as successful is the fact that it has lots of appeal to religion. Near the end of the speech, he says, “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”(para. 15) In 1941, most people were christian. Now, more people in the United States are not christian. This is a great speech, but it would be even better without having lots of christianity as motivation running the scene, and instead appeal to something like patriotism rather than religion, which would alienate those in the nation not of the same