I read every word of these two front pages from Dec. 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy,” in the words of President Roosevelt, and nowhere could I find a story about Republicans saying that a war against Japan was unwinnable, or saying that FDR was lying to the American people. Neither could I find a story about American intellectuals wondering why the Japanese hate us, or maintaining that we deserved the attack because of our prosperity or whatever. How times have changed. Click on the pages to get a large, readable copy.
This is the Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 extra that my old newspaper, The Herald-Sun in Durham, published. The late Harry Hollingsworth, a great guy and copy editor at the time of the attack, gave me this copy some years ago.
This is the now defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat‘s extra from Monday, Dec. 8, 1941. Carolina Journal Editor Richard Wagner owns this old front page.
UPDATE: James Lileks points out that newspapers back then were, let us say, less squeamish about how they depicted our enemies.
