The Other Side of Infamy by Jim Downing & James Lund

Author:Jim Downing & James Lund
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military
ISBN: 9781631466281
Publisher: The Navigators
Published: 2016-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

On Monday, December 8, America awoke to a different world. Censors began screening messages sent to other nations by cable or radio. Christmas leaves were canceled for military personnel. Borders closed and roadblocks arose. Government officials rounded up Japanese nationals, eventually detaining them in internment camps. Private aviation was canceled and licenses suspended. Armed guards were suddenly visible everywhere.

The debate between isolationists and those who favored an active response to the world’s militaristic nations was over. America was going to war.

Rumors of impending attacks on the West Coast abounded. In Washington state, navy officials at a Puget Sound base announced they would shoot down any plane flying overhead. In San Francisco, fishing boats were ordered to stay at anchor, and the lights on the Golden Gate Bridge were turned off. On the Bay Bridge, cars with Japanese passengers were stopped and the occupants questioned. In Los Angeles, four thousand antiaircraft troops were deployed, as guards watched over the new aqueduct. Cargo ships up and down the coast were “bottled up.”

A few minutes after noon in Washington, D.C., President Franklin Delano Roosevelt departed the White House for the Capitol. A few minutes later, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn welcomed the president to the floor of the House of Representatives. As Roosevelt ascended a ramp to the dais, members of Congress, normally divided by politics, rose from their seats and gave him the most enthusiastic ovation they’d ever delivered. Some of them cried.

Roosevelt looked tired, but he spoke in a clear, measured, tone:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.