Interview of Jeffery Urbin, , Curator of the Franklin Roosevelt Museum in Hyde Park, NY, Monday, March 25, 2013

Benjamin Eisenberg: Can you explain what changes occurred due to the Japanese attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii? Jeffery Urbin: This interview Once the Japanese brought (aggression) to our shores our territory then the perspective changed. We were attacked and we had to do something about it. I think that the long lasting effect of Pearl Harbor was that it changed Americans perspective on who we were and where we were in the world. We thought that we were protected by two oceans from the problems in Europe and Asia and what the attack on Pearl Harbor did was show was that we were vulnerable to attack and that we were closer to the rest of the world then we believed that we were. Once the attack at Pearl Harbor occurred the nation galvanized behind the president and luckily and this is kind of a dubious way of being lucky, but three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler declared war on the United States, which solved our problem of getting into the war in Europe. Benjamin Eisenberg: How did the government react to the Great Depression before Pearl Harbor and after Pearl Harbor. Well the government of course in the Roosevelt administration Benjamin Eisenberg: How did FDR proposed Pearl Harbor policies as well as Pearl Harbor itself change the perspective of the American public? Jeffery Urbin: Well the nation rallied around the President after the attack on Pearl Harbor. You know we were attacked and trying to stay out of the fight was no longer an issue the fight had been brought to us. We were in it. As I said, we knew that we were having problems with Japan. We were not happy about their aggressive nature in the Pacific Rim, but we felt that we had more time to deal with that and that Hitler was the main threat to world peace at that time. And so we say, Did we know about that attack, shouldnt he have know about the attack? I would go back to saying that the United States knew that there was a war , it was a dangerous world and we felt that we were dealing with it through negotiation and by preparing Pearl Harbor to be this large military base. So to say that FDR was some how complacent in letting the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor I dont think that thats fair to him.