‘DEVASTATING NEWS’
On Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered what would become one of the iconic speeches in American history.
“Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan,” Roosevelt said to a joint session of Congress.
“I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.”
FDR, as he was affectionately known, would ask the American people to prepare for war in a “fireside chat” broadcast to the nation by radio on Dec. 9, 1941, 79 years ago this week.
World War II would leave an indelible imprint on young men and women whose collective effort would be termed the Greatest Generation, one they would carry for the rest of their lives.
Norman Reifsnyder clearly remembers hearing the radio news flash reporting that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.
It was a Sunday afternoon and, as was customary, the Reifsnyders were listening to a Pennsylvania Dutch radio program at their Penn Township farmstead.
“It upset us all,” recalls Reifsnyder, 99, who still lives in the township. “It was devastating news to hear.”
Reifsnyder, who was 20 years old at the time, had premonitions that one day he’d have to go to war to defeat Nazi Germany. As a student in Penn Bernville High School, where he was valedictorian of the Class of 1939, he had learned of Adolf Hitler’s fanatical ambitions in history class.
Reifsnyder’s instincts proved correct, and he would see combat as a radioman with the Army’s 80th Division in Europe during the Battle of the Bulge.
Donald J. Burns was having a Pepsi in a momand-pop grocery store in Shamokin, Northumberland County, when news of the attack on Pearl Harbor came blaring over the radio.
“It made me irritated, to say the least,” recalls Burns, 96, who lives in Spring Township.
Like Reifsnyder’s, 17-yearold Burns’ young life would be dramatically altered by the war.
He would also end up at the Battle of the Bulge, where he nearly died of pneumonia, in December 1944.
A shocking day
Berks County residents cringed at the startling headline in the Reading Eagle on Dec. 8, 1941.
“U.S. Congress Declares War On Japan. 3,000 Are Killed And Wounded In Hawaii. Japs Claim Smashing Sea And Air Victories,” the paper spread across the cover in huge bold letters under the nameplate.
Early reports that two Navy warships had been lost were greatly underestimated.
When the smoke cleared, 21 ships and 300 warplanes were destroyed or damaged at Pearl Harbor, a U.S. military installation on Oahu island, by 200 Japanese aircraft. Included were eight battleships. And, 2,400 military and civilian personnel had been killed in the surprise attack.
In his message to Congress, Roosevelt revealed that the Japanese had also
Donald J. Burns, 96, at his Spring Township home with a framed collection of items from his time serving in the Army during World War II. Burns remembers the shock of hearing about the Japanese bombardment at Pearl Harbor. He would later enlist and fight in the Battle of the Bulge.