Life.com: Pearl Harbor: December 7,1941
December 7th, 2010
03:49 PM ET

Pearl Harbor day: Looking back 'on a date which will live in infamy'

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 - "a date which will live in infamy," President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said at the time - was a defining moment in American and world history that led to the outbreak of World War II.

Japan effectively declared war on the United States on that day, in a move that many Americans - then and now - considered unprovoked. But Japan considered the attack inevitable for a number of political and economic reasons, making the conflict more complicated than generally acknowledged.

Images from Life.com commemorating the anniversary include a proposed draft of Roosevelt's "infamous" speech, scenes from Pearl Harbor on the day itself and America's reaction in the days to follow.

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Filed under: History • Japan • Military
soundoff (33 Responses)
  1. that day now

    allows us technology on a mass scale especially the communication tools and computer, internet, cell phones, satilites ...etc. A desperate act of the end of the last single bible. now we have the information super highway for all mankind equally to share in good faith.

    December 8, 2010 at 3:29 am | Report abuse |
  2. that day now

    those american soldiers and service men were gentlemen and a warmly welcomed asset to the islands and still are to this day.

    December 8, 2010 at 3:33 am | Report abuse |
  3. phil

    ?

    December 8, 2010 at 5:36 am | Report abuse |
  4. phil

    Daniel is correct. Over 20 million Russians lost their lives to defeat the Nazis. And concerning why it was that the US waited so long before joining the war effort, a lot of American's were doing business with the Nazis during the war. @o get them to quit their war-profiteering ways, Congress actually had to pass the Trading With The Enemy Act making it a federal offense to help Hitler. Only one man thumbed his nose at this new law and continued to be Hitler's frien. His name was Prescott Bush, the grandfather of you know who.

    December 8, 2010 at 10:47 am | Report abuse |
  5. Keith in NJ

    I visited Pearl Harbor in 2006. the Arizona memorial is VERY thought provoking. When you go to it no one talks. People show respect. it is awe inspiring. God bless all those who fought and died in WWII. Pray for peace

    December 8, 2010 at 4:52 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Cesar

    I wonder if Phil is right.

    December 8, 2010 at 6:00 pm | Report abuse |
  7. Candy

    I'm quite pleased with the ifnoramtion in this one. TY!

    July 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm | Report abuse |
  8. nwzpawegyi

    ATRj2c rmzqfhmijqaw

    July 31, 2011 at 6:12 am | Report abuse |
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