that will live in INFAMY!
To commemorate this day in 1941 I'd like to share two pages of my father's diary, 12/7 and 12/8 1941. It gives me an idea of the sentiment at the time, as relayed by a 16 year old boy. I transcribed them for those interested.
December 7, 1941
I am going to live football, breathe football, and think football and the Wildcats are going undefeated next year.
After we came home we four went to the Kiva to see the Army-Navy game newsreel and also incidentally to see the feature about parachute troops. I’d like to do some parachuting myself. Thrills! The game pictures were great!
Today (Sunday) I read and looked at the reports of yesterday’s game and also the funnies before going to work at 12:30. Nonchalantly, casually I worked all afternoon, ignorant (temporarily) of facts concerning Japan and the United States. This morning those of the slant eyes bombed Honolulu, sank a warship and performed other outrages that climax the tense situation with WAR! It has been reported that our Navy retaliated by sinking the Jap aircraft carrier from which the bombers operated.
I can’t say I feel bad about it all.
December 8, 1941
War has been declared! Today our Congress met and, except for one trivial woman, voted unanimously for WAR against the treacherous, hateful, stinking Japanese. Their stab in our back on the Sabbath without a declared war is enough to send me boiling with white hot rage. At 10:30 all students of GHS (Greeley High School) met in the auditorium to hear FDR’s short address to Congress asking for the declaration. We were a solemn crowd. But while we stood listening to the national anthem I almost burst with pride in my country – a united country which is standing strong against the aggressor and before we finish the slaughter of the Japs they will rue the day they mercilessly bombed Oahu and Pearl Harbor. We’ll make them suffer the destruction they deserve. We’ll kill thousands of them.
These are mad, hateful words appropriate only for time of war but nonetheless necessary for their brutality for isn’t war a brutal thing? I feel the strength of determination flowing through us.
May God help us in our victory.
And, just for fun, a quick excerpt from December 10, 1941
I gave an English demonstration speech on “How to shoot a .45 Colt”. Dad’s govt .45 with the 6 notches in the handle created quite an effect. It sure is a weapon.
