Pearl Harbor

It began on the morning of December 7th 1941, at 7:55am local time, and just a few hours later, President Roosevelt signed the declaration of war against Japan.

Few events in World War II were as defining as the Japanese sudden and unexpected assault on Pearl Harbor, which prompted our entry into the war.

The first assault came from 183 aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy, who attacked the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, with the intention of destroying and damaging as much of the US Pacific Fleet as possible. They followed this with a second attack at 08:54am, with a further 170 planes.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared the attack "A date which shall live in infamy" in a speech following the attack which was broadcast live on the radio at 12:30pm on December 9th. You can listen to the original broadcast on RUSC.

I was listening to another show on RUSC this week, which must be one of the timeliest programs ever heard on the Screen Guild Theater. It is a production of Norman Corwin’s script Between Americans starring Orson Welles. 

Broadcast at any time, this program would make any American’s heart beat a little faster, and make him hold his head just a little higher - but since the tragic and foreboding news that came on this day (1941/12/07), the program Between Americans now becomes an American odyssey.

There are many more shows on RUSC of historic importance following the attack, and you can listen to all of these on a special page I have put together. 

Click here to listen to more shows related to the attack on Pearl Harbor.  

Many of us have elderly family or friends who were involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor, or who enlisted in the immediate aftermath, and on the anniversary of the tragedy at Pearl Harbor this week, we honor the courage and sacrifice of those men and women.