Ed. Note: Cross-posted from the Veterans Affairs blog, VAntage Point. Read the Presidential Proclamation on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day here.
Sixty-nine years ago, the world was transformed as soon as the first Japanese bombs began their descent over Pearl Harbor in a deliberate attack on the United States. Before that morning, Americans watched a foreign war grow outside of its borders into a worldwide crisis. The sudden attack on Naval forces in Hawaii brought the war home for every citizen of the country. President Roosevelt gave one of the most rousing speeches in history the following day, a declaration of war that entered the United States into what would be known as World War II. The ‘Date of Infamy’ gave rise to the Greatest Generation, and the biggest military engagement in human history.
Fonte: White House