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The Attack on Pearl Harbor Shapes American History Essays

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The Attack on Pearl Harbor Shapes American History

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy . . .” These famous lines were spoken the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave this speech to the U.S. Congress on December 8, 1941. Many criticized the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but the decision to attack America was wisely made. The Americans were going to enter the war sooner or later, and on the allies’ side. The attack on Pearl Harbor would hurt the United States’ strongest defense and kill many Americans. This was the first terrorist attack on the United States, by another country, which came as a total shock to many people.

One of the people who is rumored to have …show more content…

We gave them plenty of morphine and sent them out in the Wards to die. The others we patched up as best we could..." (Paul Spangler)

Many people remember exactly were they were when New York City was attacked. It is the same way with Pearl Harbor. Many men who were at Pearl Harbor know exactly where they were and whom they talked too. Pay Clerk D. L. Westfall, who was on the USS Oklahoma, said the following:

”At the time of the attack I was in my room shaving. The word was passed "Away Fire and Rescue Party;" just as I was leaving my room the second word was passed for all hands to man their General Quartets Stations closely followed by a shock of a hit. I glanced at my clock as I was leaving my room and noticed the time was a few minutes before 8:00 A.M. I started for my station in Radio Central; as I was passing along the third deck up a port ammunition passageway, I felt two more hits. The lights went out in the passageway except for one battle light and two panel lights in the boat crane machinery space. By the time I reached the compartment abreast the armory the ship had picked up a ten to fifteen list to port; there were a couple of battle lights on in this compartment. Water and oil were bubbling up along the junction of the bulkhead and deck of the electrical work shop, port side”(D.L. Westfall)

Like Mr. Westfall, many men can tell you exactly what they were doing and what happened to them. But there was much more of a history to the

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