Just days ago, we commemorated the 79th anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War II, following the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Dec. 8 address to a joint session of Congress, asking for a declaration of war against Japan, was quickly approved by every member with the exception of a “no” vote by Montana congresswoman Jeannette Rankin. The president signed the resolution later that same day, and the United States was officially at war.
Days later, on Dec. 11, 1941, Nazi Germany declared war against the United States, alleging what Adolf Hitler categorized as a “series of provocations” by the United States. Following his speech, the German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, delivered the formal declaration to the U.S. government. Congress declared war on Germany later that day.
Historians would later learn that President Roosevelt, justified in asking for the declaration of war against Japan, had worried that U.S. citizens, having not felt the same level of threat about German aggression in Europe, would want to limit the war efforts. German’s declaration of war against the United States provided the impetus for the United States to join Great Britain and the Allies in their fight, and what had begun in the Pacific suddenly became a true global conflict. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill would later admit, in his epic history of World War II, that the U.S. entry into the war provided him with the first good night’s sleep in two years, noting it as the “sleep of the saved.”
With the U.S. entry into the war, Chattanooga and Hamilton County men and women overwhelmingly responded to their nation’s call and enlisted.
During the last year, Chattanooga and Hamilton County veterans’ groups have come together to recognize a number of living World War II veterans, recognizing not only their service to their nation but their continued commitment to the American ideals.