Annotated Draft of Proposed Message to Congress Requesting Declaration of War Against Japan

After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared before Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Japan. This is his annotated draft of the speech.

The speech was dictated by Roosevelt on December 7, 1941, in the hours following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The handwritten notations are Roosevelt’s modifications and corrections to the typewritten first draft. The final version of the speech incorporating Roosevelt’s annotations was delivered by the President to a Joint Session of Congress on December 8, 1941.