“A Date Which Shall Live in Infamy”

A soldier (my dad) writes to his daughter of his remembrances of December 7, 1941

For Sheri

On Monday, December 8, 1941, the President of the United States addressed Congress:

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which shall live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the empire of Japan…….

    Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Manila.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Wake Island.
And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island….

…I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire. (GREAT SPEECHES, Edited by John Grafton, Dover Publications.)

It took Congress 33 minutes to pass the resolution declaring war.  The vote was 88 -0 in the Senate and 388 – 1 in the House. The one vote against was by Jeannette Rankin, Representative from Montana.

December 7, 1941, was one of the most memorable days in my youth. I was a 16-year-old Senior in High School and was at home in the mountains on one of the last weekends before Christmas. 

Snow was drifted high in front of the east windows.  Thick icicles hung from the eaves. It was about ten o’clock.  Soon we would be heading back to Big Timber where we boarded to go to school.  

The front door opened, the hired man stomped snow off his overshoes and said, “The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor and we are in the middle of a war.”

I turned 18 on June 20, 1943.  September 10^th I was inducted into the army. I did Basic Training in Fort Benning, Georgia, had a few weeks schooling at Purdue University in Indiana, and then went to Camp Swift, Texas, near Austin. I was assigned to the Company E, 407^th Infantry Regiment in the 102^nd Infantry Division. We were transferred to Fort Dix, New Jersey.  We shipped overseas in September, 1944. and were transported to the border of Holland and Germany where we became part of the Ninth Army under General William Simpson. I served as Platoon Messenger. On December 2^nd I was wounded at the town of Flossdorf in Germany. 

I was hospitalized in England and then was returned to France where I was attached to the 791 Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion guarding air strips in France on the German border.  We were part of the Ninth Air Force. 

By the middle of April there were more German prisoners than there were German airplanes and we were sent to guard a prisoner of war compound near Rennes, France. We were there when Germany surrendered.  Our next move was to a P.W. compound near Cherbourg.  We were there when Japan surrendered. Our next move was to Camp Herbert Tarreyton where I managed billeting for army officers being returned home. In March of 1946 I returned to the States and received my discharge.

Daddy

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