Day of Infamy Speech

FDR’s “Day of Infamy” speech appeals to his listeners as a united mass of Americans by constructing a clear division between “us,” or citizens of the United States, and “them,” or the Japanese Empire. This appeal to coherent and unified national identity is crucial to his efforts to generate and maintain public support for an ongoing war effort.

In his influential Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson defines nations as “imagined political [communities]” wherein citizens feel a sense of “communion” with their fellow-members even if they will never “meet them, or even hear of them” (Anderson, Benedict. Imagines Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso, 2006). This sense of communion and of belonging to a common nation is heightened through a shared language, political discourse, and, especially after the advent of national radio broadcasting, a common popular culture. In Anderson’s use, “imagined” makes it clear that national identity is constructed through members of a nation reading and/or listening to the same texts. In the “Day of Infamy” speech, as in his Fireside Chats, FDR seeks to build this “imagined community” by appealing to his listeners’ sense of collective outrage and collective resolve. Though he speaks directly to the US congress, he understands his speech is also being broadcast to the public, who make up a second and equally important

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