Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Pearl Harbor Address – The structure of the speech

Historians see FDR's powerful address to Congress on December 8^th 1941 as a turning point in American history, uniting the country in a patriotic surge of support for the 'good war'.

This speech is one of the most famous American discourses and it is considered by politicians and political experts as a masterwork of leadership communication in crisis.

But...Why?

Let's analyze the structure of the speech, we will see that a strategic language and a proper attitude can make the difference.

First of all, we notice that FDR's speech is significantly similar to an harangue.  He captures the public attention using strong expressions and a powerful tone of voice. He is a leader, and he has to demonstrate that he is able to deal with such a difficult situation.

The first part of the speech is an accusation, it highlights with strong words and direct sentences how Japan has to be considered as an 'infamous betrayer'. It continues with the declaration of innocence of the USA and ,again, it goes on with a chronicle of the tragic event : the President points out that the USA have been deceived by Japanese Institutions.

President Roosevelt now makes a list of all the attacks launched by Japanese forces. The use of a 'directory' is a very useful and immediate strategy used by many politicians or leaders to capture listeners' attention, and to convey a concept or an idea in a simple and direct way.

Roosevelt's advocation now has become judgement. He has to demonstrate that his choices and reactions are the right answer to Pearl Harbor attacks. He is now 'the father of the nation', he has to demonstrate his strenght and his power, he wants his citizens to believe that only with a brave and aggressive behaviour USA will be victorious.

This short but extremely powerful speech is a perfect example to see how words can change people's mind, they can create participation and ideology.

...and that's why we all should be careful with them!

G.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Pearl Harbor Address - Choice of Lexis

I have created a representative image of Roosevelt’s speech.

The size of the words indicates their frequency in the speech but also the importance that they have in it.

Firstly we find many times the verb “to attack” ( also we find attack as noun): ”Japan/Japanese forces attacked. We can understand that Roosevelt wants to underline the violence of Japan.

Secondly the verb is often juxtaposed with the adverb “deliberately”:  “the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked […]”; “that the attack was deliberately planned […]”. It means that the attack is voluntary and sought.

Then we can see how the word “peace” is always linked with The United States: “The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific”.

To put in other way Roosevelt's purpose is tell that USA are the “good” (he nominates God’s help) while Japan is the “evil”. About Japan he uses the sentence “false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace”.  Very strong is the word “false”, because it describes how for Roosevelt Japan is false and liar. But he doesn't directly say it.
For these reasons he says: “the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory[…] will gain the inevitable triumph”.

Semantic fields:
America and its people (Usa, Americans, congress, people);
Japan and its people (The empire of Japan, Japanese forces);
War/Enemy (air and naval forces);
Geopolitics (Pacific see/area, Guam, Hong Kong, and so forth).

Finally, in my opinion, in this way he wants to justify his decision to respond to the attack of Japan.

V.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Pearl Harbor Address - Historical Background and Audience He Wanted To Reach

The Presidential Address to Congress of December 8, 1941 was delivered by the Us President Franklin Delano Roosevelt the day after the Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor Base.

The event:

The Pearl Harbor Base, located on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu, was attacked on the morning of December 7 by 353 Japanese planes. The assault was carried out in two phases, both by airplanes and military ships. The final result was the damage of all the eight Us Navy battleships, with four of them being sunk, the destruction of eight other ships, the loss of 188 aircrafts, the death of 2402 people and the wounds for other 1247 Americans.

The speech:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt made a very brief speech, long approximately seven minutes.

He started, as usual in these occasions, with an address to the others political figures ("Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives").
The speech was later called the Infamy Speech, citing a passage in which the President indicated the date of the attack as "a date which will live in infamy".

No more others direct interactions with the audience are made, except the last sentence in which he asked to "that Congress declare ... a state of war ... between the United States and the Japanese Empire".

But, obviously, this speech was addressed to all the American citizens, primarily, and to all the International community. After this event, the Second World War became a World-wide War in the pure sense and the perspectives completely changed.

A.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor Address

Here it is the written text of the speech that we analyzed.

http://www.politicalspeeches.net/us-politics/franklin-delano-roosevelts-pearl-harbor-address

There is also the tape of that day.

Enjoy it.