DECEMBER 1941. FRANKLIN Roosevelt is President, almost a year into his third term in office. World War II is not yet America’s war—not quite. More than two years after Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany, the United States remains officially neutral. Faced with strong opposition to U.S. involvement, the President has assured the country: “We will not participate in foreign wars . . . We will not send our army, navy, or air forces to fight in foreign lands outside of the Americas, except in case of attack.”
The President has nevertheless been tiptoeing toward involvement. When Hitler’s armies rolled across Europe, when in 1940 Britain fought off a massive German air bombardment, Roosevelt pulled the political levers to get “surplus” American war supplies to the British. He has told his countrymen that Britain’s struggle with the Nazis is “a fight that will live forever in the story of human gallantry.”
He and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill have for more than two years been exchanging secret correspondence—there will eventually be some two thousand such communications between them. In the messages, Roosevelt addresses Churchill as “Former Naval Person” while Churchill calls him POTUS, for “President of the United States.” “Former Naval Person” has long since implored POTUS to send an even greater supply of munitions and ships—and food.
The President has called on Americans to produce “more ships, more guns, more planes,” not only for export but for defense of the homeland. The situation, Roosevelt has said, is “an emergency as serious as war itself.” He has warned of the threat posed by three nations that aim at “world control”: Germany, Mussolini’s Italy—and Japan.
Tension between Washington and the Land of the Rising Sun, on the increase for years, is now at breaking point. Japan’s empire has long been expanding militarily: pushing on deeper into China; seizing strategic islets in the South China Sea; thrusting into Indochina—the future Vietnam. In 1941, it threatens territories controlled by three western nations: the Philippines, a key outpost of U.S. influence in the western Pacific; the Netherlands East Indies, today’s Indonesia; and Britain’s Malaya and Singapore.
As part of its ongoing effort to restrain Japan, the United States has cut off exports of vital supplies. For several months the embargo has included oil, a commodity absolutely essential to the Japanese military—a military that now controls the government in Tokyo. Now, months of diplomatic shadowboxing appear to be ending. By land and by sea, Japanese forces are on the move.
On the night of Saturday, December 6th, President Roosevelt sends a message to his counterpart in Tokyo, Emperor Hirohito, whose title—“Showa”—means “Enlightened Peace.” Together, Roosevelt tells Hirohito, they have “a sacred duty to restore traditional amity and prevent further death and destruction.”