In the midst of the World War II, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. In response to the surprise attack, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a speech the next day in Washington D.C. entitled Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation. As the president of the United States, This speech was written for American citizens, and its purpose was to inform the American people what occurred in Hawaii on December 7th, 1941.
In President Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation, the president lists Japan’s unprovoked attacks on Hawaii’s naval base, Pearl Harbor and includes details as to why America should declare war on Japan. Explaining that it was unprovoked, he also lists the names of the other countries the Japanese army attacked. President Roosevelt stresses to the people that no matter what happens, in the end the United States will come out victorious. At the end of his speech, the president asks congress to declare war on Japan, and after the terrible attack, the United States felt as if they could no longer remain detached from the war that was going on in Europe.
The first line in this sentence is a rhetorical device. "December 7th, 1941: a date which will live in infamy," is an emotionally charged opener that appeals to pathos. Other rhetorical devices include anaphora (last night... last night...) and repetition of the idea of victory, which is also an appeal to pathos.
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