December 8, 1941: Roosevelt questions Pearl Harbor death toll estimate!

Recently, while rummaging through some papers left behind by my father, I found an interesting newspaper clipping dated December 8, 1941. I was so fascinated by it that I read it several times and committed most of it to memory. This is fortunate, since when I went to copy it, it crumbled to dust in my hands. In fact, I don’t even know what newspaper it was from. 

As the whole country knows, yesterday there was a military attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in the territory of Hawaii. Many believed that Japan was behind that attack, and indeed President Roosevelt was reported to be planning to give a speech to Congress today declaring war on Japan. However, we were all stunned by the announcement, only 15 minutes before Congress was to convene, that there would be no speech for the moment.

Fortunately, our reporter was able to obtain a short interview with the president shortly after this event. He didn’t have time to take notes because the president was pressed for time. However, he wrote down his recollections within minutes of the interview ending, so he believes this is an accurate recounting of what the president said.

Q: Mr. President, we were all stunned to hear that, after widespread reports that you were going to declare war on Japan in an address to Congress, there will be no address. Why did this happen?

A: John, you’re correct in saying there were widespread reports to the contrary (including in your paper), but I want to emphasize that it was never my intention to declare war until I was sure this was a serious attack, and not just an isolated incident caused by a few rogue Japanese airmen. I don’t have the evidence required to make that decision now.

Q: With all due respect, Mr. President, it seems there’s overwhelming evidence. For example, all reports are that thousands of American sailors perished in this raid, many just on the Arizona and the Oklahoma. Do you dispute that?

A: I don’t dispute that there may have been thousands of deaths, but I dispute that they were actually caused by the Japanese raid. For example, I have seen reports “online” (Editor’s note: The President didn’t explain what he means by this term) that said a large number of those deaths were due to heart attacks caused by the shock of the raids, sailors in poor physical shape not being able to reach lifeboats in time, etc. While these deaths are certainly tragic, they can’t be directly attributed to the raid, which – again from what I’ve read online – seems in fact just to have involved a small squadron, not an entire wing of the Japanese air force.

Q: This is certainly an interesting perspective, Mr. President. Do you have any idea when you will be able to gather evidence that will satisfy you whether or not this was actually a massive, orchestrated attack?

A: I’m glad you asked that question, John. This week, I promise to appoint a commission to look into this question and examine all evidence from all sources. I expect they will be able to hold their first meeting by the end of this month, and that they will be able to issue their report in perhaps six months.

Q: Hmm. Well, since you are the president, I guess we have no choice but to accept this decision. But suppose these attacks were to continue. Suppose we were to start losing for example thousands of lives to Japanese raids every day. Would you then admit this is actually a real problem?

A: John, I’m surprised you would ask that question. Of course. I would. No president in his right mind  would ever accept that thousands of deaths every day were the result just of misclassification or something like that. I certainly hope we never have a president that takes that position.

Q: I also hope that will never happen – and I find it very unlikely it ever will, of course. Thank you, Mr. President.

I would love to hear any comments or questions you have on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com.