Staff Pick: Remembering Pearl Harbor

Letter from Franklin Warren VanWert to his mother

Source: F. Warren VanWert Papers, 1941-1945

Staff Member: Nanette Hardison

Description: On a Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the navy base at Pearl Harbor was suddenly attacked by the Imperial Navy of Japan. The attack was devastating in both loss of life and naval ships among them being the USS Arizona. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would later declare in his speech to Congress that December 7, 1941, would be “A Day that will Live in Infamy”. The Pearl Harbor attack was instrumental in getting the United States into World War II.

The attached image is of a letter written by Franklin Warren VanWert to his mother while stationed aboard the USS Breckinridge (AP-1976). The letter, written on the day of the attack, describes what VanWert heard about the attack that day.