The first assault came from 183 aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy, who attacked the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, with the intention of destroying and damaging as much of the US Pacific Fleet as possible. They followed this with a second attack at 08:54am, with a further 170 planes.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared the attack "A date which shall live in infamy" in a speech following the attack which was broadcast live on the radio at 12:30pm on December 9th. You can listen to the original broadcast on RUSC.
I was listening to another show on RUSC this week, which must be one of the timeliest programs ever heard on the Screen Guild Theater. It is a production of Norman Corwin’s script Between Americans starring Orson Welles.
Broadcast at any time, this program would have made any American’s heart beat a little faster, and make him hold his head just a little higher - but after the tragic and foreboding news that came on that day, the program Between Americans now becomes an American odyssey.
Click here to listen to more shows related to the attack on Pearl Harbor including a complete broadcast day.
Many of us have elderly family or friends who were involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor, or who enlisted in the immediate aftermath, and on the anniversary of the tragedy at Pearl Harbor this week, we honor the courage and sacrifice of those men and women.
