Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

16.
The First Response
The Reaction to the Attack in Washington
As news of the attack on Pearl Harbor spread around the world,
reports soon followed of other Japanese actions—all over
the Pacifi c. Th ey struck Singapore in southeast Asia, where
the British had a big naval base. Th ey struck Khota Baru on the
British Malayan peninsula and the British base in Hong Kong.
Th ey attacked U.S.-operated Clark Field in the Philippines. And
they struck the U.S. islands of Guam and Wake. All this within
seven hours and three minutes of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
And then a few hours later, they hit U.S. air and naval bases in
Manila and the mid-Pacifi c U.S. island of Midway. 1
Before the attack, one of Roosevelt’s major concerns had been
that the American people would not support a war to defend the
British or Dutch in southeast Asia if the Japanese attacked them
there. However, the attack on the U.S. fl eet at Pearl Harbor had
radically altered the situation. Now there was no doubt that the
people would support a declaration of war.
1 79th Cong., 1st sess. Joint (Congressional) Committee on the Investigation
of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Pearl Harbor Attack, 39 vols. (Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Government Printing Offi ce, 1946), part 6, p. 2675.
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