On December 8, 1941 U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to deal with an unprecedented attack on American forces in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He gave his “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation” to a joint session of Congress. Because of this surprising turn of events, FDR had no choice but to lead the U.S. into World War II. He uses rhetorical appeals to make his part in the war official. There was no way FDR would back down, he made it clear that with the help of the American public, victory over the Japanese would be easily accomplished. His motive is to convince Congress to declare war on Japan and to solidify even further why the American public voted him into his fourth term as President of the United States. He also wishes to convince …show more content…
Unfortunately, surprise made Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor so deadly and disastrous. No one knew about Japan’s plans to attack us; the entire event came out of nowhere, which makes Japan an easy target as a devil-like country. Technically, the attack on Pearl Harbor counts as a war crime because of how the Japanese completely blindsided the United States. Because of this, Americans consider the attack both legally and philosophically unacceptable. When explaining the insane nature of the attack, Roosevelt describes the Japanese as they “deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements,” (1). Connotative diction by using the words deliberately and deceive make it easy for Roosevelt to paint the Japanese in a horrible light as both duplicitous and cold-blooded. By using these words, he makes the nature of the Japanese very clear to the American people, continuing to build up their displeasure with the nation. Still developing the animosity between the two countries, Roosevelt describes the Japanese and their attacks as “forms of treachery,” and “unprovoked and dastardly,” (2). This powerful negative tone continues the sense of displeasure with the Japanese that he wishes to share with Americans. Roosevelt backs America with God and makes it seem as if we can do anything, while he paints Japan as an unhonorable, devious nation that deserves to lose because of what they did to perfect