The day after... A Date That Will Live in Infamy

December 7, 1941 is of course a day that lives in the memory of Americans as the day the Japanese Imperial navy attacked the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Most Americans' historical conciseness about that day and the events immediately afterward is shaped by President Roosevelt's speech to a joint session of Congress, delivered Monday at 12:30 pm on December 8, 1941. In the speech, Roosevelt requested a declaration of war on Japan, but more memorably invoke a powerful and lasting memory of December 7, 1941 as a "Date That Will Live in Infamy."

Listen to the speech here.



The Library Congress's Archive of American Folk Song recorded a series of interviews with everyday people about their reactions to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. These interview provide a glimpse into the national mood in hours after the bombing as the nation prepared to go to war against Japan. This post features the interviews and related historical materials used to make this Google Map.

First the map

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On this map, interviews conducted between December 8 and 10, 1941 by workers in the ten field offices for the Archive of American Folk Song are featured.

Below are these field office locations and the individals who conducted the interviews. For more read here.

Washington, D.C., by Philip H. Cohen and Alan Lomax (Director of the Archive of American Folk Song).
Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, by Robert E. Barton Allen.
Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, by Charles S. Johnson and Lewis Jones.
New York, New York, by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin.
Burlington, North Carolina, by Fletcher Collins.
Madison, Wisconsin, by Leland Coon.
Austin, Texas, by John Henry Faulk.
Dallas, Texas, by John A. Lomax.
Denver, Colorado, by Duncan Emrich.
Buffalo, New York, by Charles T. Harrell.

American Memory has presented these December 8-10, 1941 interviews along with interviews conducted in January and February as part of the collection After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor. The complete collection includes over 200 interviews between December 8, 1941 and February, 1942.

The interview conducted in the three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor provide a glimpse into the national mood. They represent a range of views, although most are quite patriotic, doubt and reservations loom through out. The common view is that Americans were shocked and surprised by the attack. Most of the people interviewed were, but not all. One person interviewed that stands out for his seemingly contrarian views. The following transcript from the beginning of this interview illustrates the doubt and concern in this one man's mind about President Roosevelt's efforts.

Alan Lomax: Do you know what you're going to talk about?

Unidentified Man: Well, all I have to say is, they could have easily stayed out of this. They did the wrong thing by electing President Roosevelt. Although he helped some, he helped a whole lot, but still therefore he should have kept out of it. He could have easily made some arrangement for that country over there.

Alan Lomax: Pretty hard to make arrangements when somebody attacks you with a fleet of armors.

Unidentified Man: No. Well, the onliest word to that is fight back to that, but still he could have made some, you know what I mean, progress or something like that. He could have talked it out with them and explain it better and maybe they wouldn't did that.