Day of Infamy Speech

FDR’s use of consonance (the repetition of similar consonants in adjacent words) is particularly noticeable in recordings of his address. A practiced public speaker, FDR punctuates his points through his steady, deliberate delivery, pausing frequently before uttering harsh consonants at the beginning or ends of words. These pauses make the consonants he utters sound even more harsh and disruptive than they would otherwise, echoing the disruption that the coming war will cause in American lives. FDR uses consonance to greatest effect at the beginning and end of his address. When he is referring to the Japanese attacks, his consonants land on words directly related to Japanese violence or falsehood, where they might be seen as echoing the sound of bombs dropping on Pearl Harbor. Toward the end, consonance dominates words like “determination” and “triumph,” emphasizing his optimism about the US’s ability to disrupt Japan’s violence and win the war.

Throughout his address, FDR highlights the supposed contrasts between the United States and Japan, focusing mostly on Japanese duplicity and “infamy” and Americans’ “righteous might.” FDR builds up this contrast by first establishing the Japanese as untrustworthy enemies and then introducing citizens of the United States as the