Over Our Coffee Cups

Many of us are familiar with FDR’s Day of Infamy speech, but less well-known is that the president was not the first public figure to address the American people about the attack on Pearl Harbor. From September 28, 1941 to April 5, 1942, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had a weekly radio show on NBC which aired at 6:45 p.m. on Sundays. The eleventh episode aired on December 7, 1941, by this time word of the attack had spread. Mrs. Roosevelt adapted her planned program to address the people. Her comments directed at the women and youth of the nation seem especially prescient when studying the WAAC/WAC:

I should like to say just a word to the women in the country tonight. I have a boy at sea on a destroyer. For all I know, he may be on his way to the Pacific. Two of my children are in coast cities on the Pacific. Many of you, all over this country, have boys in the services who will now be called upon to go into action. You have friends and families in what has suddenly become a danger zone. You cannot escape anxiety, you cannot escape the clutch of fear at your heart, and yet I hope that the certainty of what we have to meet will make you rise above these fears. We must go about our daily business, more determined than ever to do the ordinary things as well as we can, and when we find a way to do anything more in our communities to help others, to build morale, to give a feeling of security, we must do it. Whatever is asked of us, I’m sure we can accomplish it. We are the free and unconquerable people of the United States of America. To the young people of the nation, I must speak a word tonight. You are going to have a great opportunity. There will be high moments in which your strength and your ability will be tested. I have faith in you. I feel as though I was standing upon a rock, and that rock is my faith in my fellow citizens.

You can listen to the full program here: