{"id":8154,"date":"2021-12-09T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=97778"},"modified":"2021-12-09T07:44:24","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T06:44:24","slug":"pearl-harbor-aftermath-the-fallout-from-the-attack","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/pearl-harbor-aftermath-the-fallout-from-the-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearl Harbor aftermath: the fallout from the attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Rachel Dinning\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 09 December 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Stefanos Vasilakes was the embodiment of all that was great about the United States of America. After arriving from Greece in 1910, he had set up a hot peanuts and fresh popped corn cart on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and East Executive Avenue in Washington DC. The spot was actually White House property, but none of the occupiers minded when he sold the best peanuts in town. Presidents Taft, Wilson, Harding and Roosevelt had all been customers, as\u00a0had Coolidge, who described Vasilakes as his \u201ccontact man\u201d with the American public. To reporters, Vasilakes represented the \u201clittle man\u201d of the nation.<\/p>\n

And on the afternoon of Sunday 7 December the \u201clittle man\u201d was livid. When the reporter from Washington\u2019s Evening Star newspaper arrived outside the White House en route to a press conference, hastily called after news broke of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor<\/a>, he found an agitated Vasilakes. \u201cSteve was too excited to talk clearly,\u201d wrote the reporter. \u201cAnd about all he could say was: \u2018Just three months, we finish them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Read more | Why didn\u2019t America see Pearl Harbor coming?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
The fury of Vasilakes and the rest of the US public at Japan\u2019s \u2018sneak attack\u2019 united the country in an instant. On the Sunday afternoon, President Roosevelt met first with his cabinet and then with a\u00a0delegation from the House of Repres\u00adentatives and the Senate. The next day, Congress voted on whether to sanction FDR\u2019s wish to go to war with Japan, and\u00a0only the pacifist Jeannette Rankin dissented. For that stance she was scorned by the American people, as were the few isolationists who continued to argue against involvement in armed conflict. One of the most vociferous of these prior to Pearl Harbor had been the celebrated aviator Charles Lindbergh, an ardent admirer of Nazi Germany and a man who used his fame to demand that Roosevelt keep the country out of a European war.<\/p>\n
In May 1940, Lindbergh, a prominent figure in the isolationist America First Committee, had addressed the nation in\u00a0a\u00a0radio broadcast, ridiculing FDR\u2019s warnings that the US was in danger. The\u00a0country was under threat from no one, said Lindbergh (pictured right in April 1941), unless \u201cAmerican peoples bring it on\u201d. He added: \u201cThere will be no invasion by foreign aircraft, and no foreign navy will dare to approach within bombing range\u00a0of\u00a0our coasts.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Japan had dared, and\u00a0with\u00a0devastating consequences. As one\u00a0newspaper, the\u00a0Wilmington Morning Star, put it in an editorial: \u201cJapan\u2019s Sunday attack on American outposts ended American isolationism. Leaders of that movement, with the exception of Charles Lindbergh, who has\u00a0gone into seclusion, lost no time in\u00a0making it clear that they underwent a\u00a0change of heart forthwith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aiding the allies<\/h3>\n
This transformation was welcomed by\u00a0Roosevelt, who from early in\u00a0the war had recognised the danger posed by the\u00a0ruthless ambition of Nazi Germany. In September 1940, Adolf Hitler<\/a> had signed a Tripartite Pact with Italy and Japan, and on 29 December that year \u2013 following his\u00a0recent historic re-election to a third\u00a0term of office \u2013 Roosevelt addressed the nation in one of his \u2018fireside chats\u2019 on the radio. \u201cIf Great Britain goes down, the Axis powers will control the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the\u00a0high seas,\u201d he warned. \u201cIt is no exaggeration to say that all of us, in all the Americas, would be living at the point of a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
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