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The Depression of the 1930s was worldwide. When a new war engulfed Europe, Roosevelt sought to aid the British. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States entered the war directly. Initially, Allied prospects were bleak, but by 1944 the tide had turned. Victory in the Pacific, however, came only after the use of nuclear weapons.
"A date that will live in infamy."
 Early in the afternoon of December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his chief foreign policy aide, Harry Hopkins, were interrupted by a telephone call from Secretary of War Henry Stimson and told that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. At about 5:00 p.m., following meetings with his military advisers, the President calmly and decisively dictated to his secretary, Grace Tully, a request to Congress for a declaration of war. He had composed the speech in his head after deciding on a brief, uncomplicated appeal to the people of the United States rather than a thorough recitation of Japanese perfidies, as Secretary of State Cordell Hull had urged.
President Roosevelt then revised the typed draft—marking it up, updating military information, and selecting alternative wordings that strengthened the tone of the speech. He made the most significant change in the critical first line, which originally read, "a date which will live in world history." Grace Tully then prepared the final reading copy, which Roosevelt subsequently altered in three more places.
On December 8, at 12:30 p.m., Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress and the Nation via radio. The Senate responded with a unanimous vote in support of war; only Montana pacifist Jeanette Rankin dissented in the House. At 4:00 p.m. that same afternoon, President Roosevelt signed the declaration of war.
Listen to part of Roosevelt's speech to Congress:
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Full transcript of the speech.
—National Archives and Record Administration
U.S. Army’s 442nd Regiment Combat Team
The U.S. Army's 442nd Regiment in World War II was composed almost entirely of Japanese Americans. It defeated both discrimination and the defenses of Italy's notorious Gothic Line. Considering its size and time in combat, the Army infantry unit is the most decorated in U.S. military history.
One of the Regiment's members was serving overseas with his brother while the rest of their family was interned in a camp for Japanese Americans in the United States. His brother was killed in action. George Saito wrote to their father, and here's an excerpt from that letter.
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"I believe the War Department has notified you of our loss of Calvin...July 7th was the immemorable day. ...On the 6th of July his unit was attacking a hill held by the enemy...they took the hill. ...Cal being the radio man got a call through to the artillery to open fire on the enemy. He guided the firing on the enemy positions. His action saved many of his buddies. The next morning the enemy barraged the hill with mortars and he happened to be one of the unlucky ones. ...Dad...in spite of Cal’s supreme sacrifice, don’t let anyone tell you that he was foolish or made a mistake to "volunteer." ...America is a damn good country and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise."
— George Saito |
Tragically, three months after sending his father this letter, George Saito also was killed in battle.
—"Letters of a Nation, A Collection of Extraordinary
American Letters", Edited by Adrew Carroll,
Kodanska American, 1997
The War Ends
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by the first atomic bombs used in warfare. Following these atomic bombings, Japan surrendered.
President Truman radio speech to the nation on August 9, announcing the use of the atomic bomb.
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 Since an Atomic bomb was dropped over downtown Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony has been held in the Peace Memorial Park every year, to remember the victims and affirm the desire to create a world free from nuclear weapons.
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Click photos to enlarge.
Date: June 6, 1944
Title: Landing on the coast of France under heavy Nazi machine gun fire are these American soldiers, shown just as they left the ramp of a Coast Guard landing boat.
Source: National Archives and Records Administration
Date: February 1944
Title: Back to a Coast Guard assault transport comes this Marine after two days and nights of Hell on the beach of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. His face is grimey with coral dust but the light of battle stays in his eyes.
Source: National Archives and Records Administration
Date: October 20, 1944
Title: An American medium tank hit a Japanese land mine in surging forward to the Tacloban Air Strip during the early stages of the Philippines invasion on October 20. Here, one of the wounded from the wrecked tank is being bandaged by a medical corpsman.
Source: National Archives and Records Administration
Date: 1944
Title: Negro sailors of the USS MASON commissioned at Boston Navy Yard March 20, 1944 proudly look over their ship which is the first to have a predominantly Negro crew.
Source: National Archives and Records Administration
Date: 1941
Title: Three U.S. battleships are hit from the air during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in this Dec. 7, 1941, file photo. From left are: USS WEST VIRGINIA, severely damaged; USS TENNESSEE, damaged; and USS ARIZONA, sunk.
Source: (AP Photo)
Date: February 23, 1945
Title: Flag rising on Iwo Jima
Source: National Archives and Records Administration
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