With Japan striking Pearl Harbor and bringing the U.S. into the war, the question was: What did it mean for American relations with Germany?
were dramatically interrupted. Hearing the news of Pearl Harbor on Reuters East Asian radio, press chief Otto Dietrich immediately raced to inform the Führer. Exercised by bad news from Russia, Hitler received him coldly. But when Dietrich cut him short by reading out the message, he reacted with astonishment. His face brightened and he asked tensely, “Is the news true?”
Throughout the coming hours and days, Hitler would express relief that Japan’s actions would tie down substantial British and American resources in the Far East. In any case, he was convinced that he was effectively already at war with America. And this time, unlike in 1917, the Reich would not wait to be openly attacked by the United States. Hitler would strike first.
But sensitive as the president was to the threat from Germany, he also remained attuned to the attack’s likely impact on American public opinion—and the strength of anti-interventionist sentiment in Congress, aware that many of its members had denounced the administration’s policies in Asia and dismissed arguments against greater American involvement in Europe.
A crowd on Broadway, New York, hold up newspapers announcing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 1941.In Washington it was still early evening. The Roosevelt administration had still not received a declaration of war from official Japanese government channels. But in the White House, the telephone rang repeatedly with reports from the Pacific that grew ever more devastating. The death toll continued to climb; it was increasingly clear that damage to the U.S.
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