110 Fun Facts About Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, fell on which day of the week?

Sunday was no accident: Japan's spy in Honolulu had reported it was the day when the most ships were likely to be in harbor, and planners counted on a weekend morning's low alert.

Pearl Harbor is on which Hawaiian island?

Oahu became the Pacific Fleet's home in 1940, when Roosevelt moved it from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in the hope of deterring Japan.

Across the International Date Line, Japan dates the Pearl Harbor attack to which day?

December 8: the Japanese carriers kept Tokyo time, so their clocks read shortly after 3 a.m. on the 8th when the first bombs fell, and Japan's declaration of war carries that date.

Which Japanese fighter plane escorted the bombers that attacked Pearl Harbor?

Mitsubishi Zero fighters escorted both waves and strafed the airfields; the name comes from the plane's Type 0 label, for the Japanese imperial year 2600, or 1940, when it entered service.

Four of Pearl Harbor's six attacking carriers were sunk in which 1942 battle?

Midway, in June 1942, sank Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu after American codebreakers learned where the fleet would strike next, and Japan was forced onto the defensive.

Which admiral, commander of Japan's Combined Fleet, conceived the Pearl Harbor attack as a pre-emptive strike?

Isoroku Yamamoto had studied at Harvard and served as naval attaché in Washington, and his respect for American industry convinced him Japan's only chance lay in one crippling opening blow.

Who commanded the Japanese carrier strike force that delivered the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Chūichi Nagumo was a surface-ship officer rather than an aviator, and was handed the navy's main carrier force largely because of his seniority.

Which commander of the first wave at Pearl Harbor later settled in the US and toured as a Christian evangelist?

Mitsuo Fuchida turned to Christianity after reading a tract about Jacob DeShazer, an American airman who had been a prisoner of the Japanese, and the two men later preached together.

The code word "Tora", radioed three times from over Pearl Harbor, signalled what?

Complete surprise had been achieved: 'tora' is Japanese for tiger, and with the defenders unready the slow, vulnerable torpedo bombers could lead the first wave against the battleships.

During planning, Japan's naval leaders referred to the Pearl Harbor attack by which code name?

Operation Z took its name from the famous Z signal flag that Admiral Togo had flown to rally his fleet in a great victory a generation earlier.

Pearl Harbor's planners closely studied a 1940 British carrier raid on the Italian fleet at which port?

Taranto was where 21 slow Swordfish biplanes from a single British carrier put three Italian battleships out of action in one night, proving a fleet was not safe at anchor.

The Pearl Harbor strike force assembled in secret in a remote bay in which northern island chain?

The Kuril Islands gave the fleet a remote anchorage to gather unseen, and it then crossed the North Pacific on a course chosen to stay clear of normal shipping lanes.

The November 1941 US note that Japan treated as an ultimatum is named after which Secretary of State?

Cordell Hull's note asked Japan to pull out of China and Indochina; by the time it was delivered the strike fleet had already put to sea, though it could still have been recalled.

Which Japanese emperor gave the final go-ahead for the Pearl Harbor attack on December 1, 1941?

Hirohito had approved the plan on November 5 but held back the final order until an Imperial Conference on December 1, after his advisers judged the American terms impossible to accept.

Spy Takeo Yoshikawa reported on the Pearl Harbor fleet for months while posing in Honolulu as what?

A consular official on paper: under the cover name Tadashi Morimura he tracked the fleet from a hilltop above the harbor and from small planes he rented at the local airport.

Why were Japan's aerial torpedoes given wooden fins and an anti-roll device before Pearl Harbor?

To operate in the shallow harbor: an ordinary air-dropped torpedo plunged too deep on entry, so breakaway wooden fins were added that kept these ones running near the surface.

Hours after Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers caught American warplanes parked on the ground at Clark Field in which territory?

The Philippines lost half of its American air force that day, much of it on the ground at Clark Field, even though commanders there had known of Pearl Harbor for about nine hours.

Lt Kermit Tyler took the radar blips of Pearl Harbor's first wave for what?

B-17 bombers due from California were expected from almost the same direction, and the radar operators never told Tyler how large the blip was; the bombers then flew in from the mainland in the middle of the raid.

Japanese troops began landing in which territory about an hour before the first bombs fell on Pearl Harbor?

Malaya came first: Japanese troops were wading ashore at Kota Bharu about an hour before the raid on Hawaii, so the Pacific War opened not at Pearl Harbor but on a beach in Southeast Asia.

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, what was Hawaii's political status?

A US territory since 1900, Hawaii would not become a state until 1959, and within hours of the attack it was put under martial law that lasted until 1944.

About how many Americans were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor?

About 2,400: the official toll is 2,403, and nearly half of them died in moments when a bomb set off the forward magazine of the battleship Arizona.

The Pearl Harbor attack order, 'Climb Mount Niitaka', named the Japanese empire's highest peak, which stood on which island?

Taiwan was under Japanese rule, so its Yu Shan, then called Mount Niitaka, outranked Mount Fuji by 176 metres; the coded order went out to the fleet on December 2.

Most of the civilians killed during the Pearl Harbor attack died when what landed in Honolulu?

American anti-aircraft shells did it: many of the Navy's rounds were badly fused, missed the planes and exploded when they hit the ground in the city, whose fire crews were away at the bases.

Which battleship rolled over and capsized at Pearl Harbor after taking multiple torpedo hits?

USS Oklahoma trapped hundreds of men as she rolled, and a civilian yard worker, Julio DeCastro, led the team that cut 32 of them out through the hull; raised but never repaired, she sank under tow in 1947.

Which leader wrote that on the night of Pearl Harbor he 'slept the sleep of the saved and thankful'?

Winston Churchill heard the news at Chequers with the American ambassador and saw at once that the United States was now in the war, which he took to mean the war would now be won.

Which battleship was the only one to get underway during the Pearl Harbor attack, before being deliberately beached?

USS Nevada drew a swarm of dive bombers as she steamed down the channel, and was run aground on purpose so she could not sink in the entrance and bottle up the fleet.

Only one battleship was present at both Pearl Harbor and which 1944 invasion?

The Normandy landings: the battleship shelled German positions on D-Day, went on to bombard Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and survived the atomic bomb tests at Bikini before the Navy sank her as a target in 1948.

Which former battleship, serving as a target ship, was torpedoed at Pearl Harbor and never raised?

USS Utah had been stripped of her big guns years earlier to serve as a target for American bombers; the Navy gave up trying to raise her, and she still lies where she rolled over.

Which future US senator, then a Honolulu teenager, gave first aid to casualties on the day of Pearl Harbor?

Daniel Inouye, a 17-year-old Red Cross aide that day, went on to lose his right arm fighting in Italy and then to represent Hawaii in Congress for more than fifty years.

The fleet flagship USS Pennsylvania escaped serious damage at Pearl Harbor largely because she was where?

In dry dock, Pennsylvania sat beyond the reach of torpedoes and took a single bomb, while the two destroyers docked just ahead of her were burned out.

Which destroyer sank a midget submarine outside Pearl Harbor an hour before the planes arrived?

USS Ward fired the first American shots of the Pacific war, but her kill was doubted for decades, until the submarine was found in 2002 with a shell hole through its conning tower.

Which 1953 Best Picture winner, set among soldiers in Hawaii, climaxes with the attack on Pearl Harbor?

From Here to Eternity came from a James Jones novel thought too raw to film; the script was toned down to win over the censors and the Army, and the result took eight Oscars.

What became of the midget submarine captured at Pearl Harbor with its commander, Kazuo Sakamaki?

Toured the US selling war bonds: the boat of America's first Japanese prisoner of war was shipped to the mainland in 1942 and shown from city to city, and it is now a museum piece in Texas.

Which decoration did Doris Miller receive for manning a machine gun aboard USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor?

Navy Cross: Miller, a mess attendant with no gunnery training, first helped carry wounded shipmates to safety and then manned a machine gun; he was the first Black sailor to receive the medal.

Which actor played Pearl Harbor hero Doris Miller in Michael Bay's 2001 film about the attack?

Cuba Gooding Jr. played Miller, who died in 1943 when the escort carrier Liscome Bay was torpedoed; in 2020 the Navy gave his name to a future aircraft carrier, the first named for an enlisted sailor.

Thousands of Japanese Americans from Hawaii volunteered after Pearl Harbor for which Army unit, whose motto was 'Go for Broke'?

442nd Regimental Combat Team: its Japanese American soldiers, many with families held in mainland camps, became one of the most decorated units in American military history.

Nine Honolulu firefighters who fought the fires at Hickam Field during Pearl Harbor were later given which decoration?

Purple Heart: three of the firefighters were killed and six wounded, and they remain the only civilian firefighters to receive a medal meant for the armed forces; the dead were not honoured until 1984.

Which pilot led the first American air raid on Japan's home islands, four months after Pearl Harbor?

Jimmy Doolittle expected a court-martial after losing every one of his sixteen bombers; instead he received the Medal of Honor and a jump of two ranks to brigadier general.

USS Enterprise was returning from delivering Marine fighters to which outpost when Pearl Harbor was attacked?

Wake Island had just taken delivery of a Marine fighter squadron from Enterprise, so the carrier was still at sea; planes she sent ahead flew into the raid, and some were shot down by American guns.

Which Pearl Harbor targets did the Japanese raid leave intact?

The oil tank farm and repair yards were not attacked, so the fleet kept its fuel, and many of the damaged ships were repaired on the spot and returned to duty.

Japan's 14-part message breaking off talks reached the US government when, relative to the Pearl Harbor attack?

More than an hour after it began: the embassy was too slow typing up the 5,000-word message for its 1 p.m. deadline, though American codebreakers had read most of it hours earlier.

After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt's first draft read 'a date which will live in' what, before he changed it to 'infamy'?

World history was the phrase Roosevelt first dictated to his secretary; he then struck it out for 'infamy', and the finished address ran only about six and a half minutes.

After Pearl Harbor, fear of a West Coast attack moved the 1942 Rose Bowl to which university's stadium?

Duke offered its own stadium in Durham, North Carolina, after the Pasadena game was called off, then lost at home to Oregon State, 20–16.

Who cast the only vote in Congress against declaring war on Japan after Pearl Harbor?

Jeannette Rankin, a Montana pacifist and the first woman elected to Congress, had also voted against entering World War I; after this vote she hid from a pursuing crowd in a phone booth.

Which country declared war on Japan roughly nine hours before America did?

Britain did not wait for Washington: its prime minister had promised to act 'within the hour' if Japan attacked America, and Japanese forces were already assaulting British territory in Asia.

Four days after Pearl Harbor, which country joined Italy in declaring war on the United States?

Germany's Tripartite Pact with Japan covered only an attack on Japan, but Hitler declared war anyway and Congress replied the same day, taking America into the war in Europe.

Admiral Kimmel was struck by what while watching the Pearl Harbor attack from his office window?

A spent machine-gun bullet came through the glass, cut his white jacket and raised a welt on his chest; Kimmel is said to have murmured that it would have been merciful had it killed him.

What happened to Husband Kimmel, the Pacific Fleet's commander, after the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Demoted to rear admiral and retired: Kimmel lost his temporary four-star rank when he was relieved ten days after the attack and left the Navy in 1942; a 1999 Senate vote to restore the rank was never acted on.

Who took command of the Pacific Fleet three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Chester Nimitz later called it 'God's mercy' that the fleet was caught in port: ships sunk at their moorings could be raised and most crews saved, where at sea both would have been lost for good.

After Pearl Harbor, a Japanese pilot crash-landed on which small private Hawaiian island and was killed by residents?

Niʻihau's islanders had not yet heard of the raid and threw the pilot a party; days later, when he took captives, Ben Kanahele, shot three times, hurled him against a stone wall.

About how many of Hawaii's 150,000-plus Japanese Americans were interned after Pearl Harbor?

About 1,500, a tiny share beside the mass removal on the mainland: Japanese Americans were over a third of Hawaii's people, and locking them up would have stripped the islands of their workforce.

Sixteen B-25 bombers launched the first US air raid on Japan from which carrier?

USS Hornet had to launch the bombers early after a Japanese picket boat sighted the task force; short of fuel, fifteen came down in or near China and one landed in the Soviet Union, where its crew was interned.

Over which island was the plane of Pearl Harbor's mastermind ambushed by American P-38 fighters in April 1943?

Bougainville was where P-38s from Guadalcanal were waiting: American codebreakers had read the admiral's travel schedule, and his bomber was shot down into the jungle.

The admiral who planned Pearl Harbor had lost two fingers as a young man in which battle?

Tsushima, where Japan shattered Russia's fleet in 1905, left the future admiral wounded and missing two fingers; after the defeat the tsar accepted American-mediated peace talks.

How did the admiral who led the Pearl Harbor strike force die in 1944?

Suicide during the Battle of Saipan: after losing his carriers he had been moved to a shore command in the Marianas, and he shot himself as American troops overran the island.

Which chief planner of the Pearl Harbor air attack later led Japan's Air Self-Defense Force?

Minoru Genda ran the Air Self-Defense Force from 1959 to 1962 and then sat in Japan's parliament for 24 years, a second career spent as an ally of the country he had helped to attack.

The USS Arizona Memorial's architect was detained as an enemy alien in WWII because he was born where?

Austria-born Alfred Preis was held at Sand Island after Pearl Harbor; two decades later he gave the memorial its sagging centre and raised ends, which he said stood for defeat followed by victory.

A 1961 benefit concert by which entertainer helped pay for the USS Arizona Memorial?

Elvis Presley played the benefit in Hawaii in March 1961 for the memorial's building fund, and then gave no public concert for seven years, until his 1968 comeback.

Oil still rising from the wreck of USS Arizona is sometimes called what?

Black tears, also called the tears of the Arizona, still rise from her fuel bunkers; many crewmen who survived the attack later had their ashes placed inside the hull by Navy divers.

Why was paper money in Hawaii overprinted with the word HAWAII after Pearl Harbor?

To void it if Japan invaded: ordinary dollars were recalled in 1942 and replaced with stamped notes that could be declared worthless at a stroke if the islands and their banks fell into enemy hands.

On which 1962 holiday was USS Arizona's monument dedicated?

Memorial Day 1962 saw the dedication of the memorial that spans the wreck; the ship was judged a total loss and never raised, and she is still the grave of more than 900 of her crew.

Which battleship, site of Japan's 1945 surrender, opened as a Pearl Harbor museum in 1999?

USS Missouri was donated as a museum ship in 1998 and berthed within sight of the Arizona Memorial, so the ships that mark the first and last days of America's war lie a few hundred yards apart.

Which director was hired for the Japanese half of a 1970 Hollywood epic about Pearl Harbor, then replaced weeks into shooting?

Akira Kurosawa spent more than a year preparing the Japanese half of the film, named for the raid's 'Tora' signal, but was replaced within weeks of starting to shoot, and none of his footage was used.

Michael Bay's 2001 film Pearl Harbor won its only Academy Award in which category?

Best Sound Editing was its one win from four nominations; the same film drew six Golden Raspberry nominations, including Worst Picture, and still grossed $449 million worldwide.

In Hawaiian legend, Pearl Harbor was the home of Kaʻahupāhau, a goddess who took the form of which animal?

A shark: Kaʻahupāhau, called the queen of sharks, was said to live in the lagoon Hawaiians knew as Puʻuloa and to protect the people of the island from man-eaters.

Hawaii's kingdom gave the US Navy exclusive use of Pearl Harbor to keep which crop entering America duty-free?

Sugar from Hawaii entered the United States duty-free under an 1875 treaty; when it came up for renewal, Washington's price was exclusive use of Pearl Harbor, which the planters were willing to pay.

Which Japanese prime minister visited the USS Arizona Memorial with President Obama in December 2016?

Shinzo Abe made the trip in return for one of Obama's: seven months earlier Obama had gone to Hiroshima, the first sitting American president to visit the city.

Why were Pearl Harbor's warplanes parked wingtip to wingtip?

To deter sabotage: the Army's commander had Hawaii on alert for saboteurs, not an air raid, so the bunched-up planes made perfect targets, and 188 American aircraft were destroyed that morning.

What went wrong when Pearl Harbor crews flooded the berth of two blazing destroyers?

Burning oil rose with the water and engulfed Cassin and Downes, whose torpedo warheads began to explode; Cassin toppled onto Downes, yet both were rebuilt and went back to war.

Which Hollywood director shared the credit for December 7th, the Navy's Oscar-winning 1943 film about Pearl Harbor?

John Ford spent the war in uniform as a Navy Reserve officer running a photographic unit, and shared the credit with cameraman Gregg Toland; a shortened cut of their film won the 1944 documentary Oscar.

Why were Army planes on Hawaii's airfields parked wingtip to wingtip before Japan struck Pearl Harbor?

To guard against sabotage, the planes were lined up in the open instead of dispersed, while ammunition lockers stayed locked and most guns sat unmanned.

Fear of a Japanese raid on the West Coast after Pearl Harbor moved which New Year's football game to North Carolina?

The Rose Bowl left Pasadena for Duke's home stadium in Durham, the only time it was played anywhere else until the pandemic game of 2021.

On which day of the week did Japan's carrier planes strike Pearl Harbor, catching the base completely unprepared?

Sunday morning was barely under way when the carriers launched, and the raid destroyed or damaged about twenty warships and more than 300 aircraft.

Which actor plays Rafe McCawley, the pilot presumed killed over the English Channel, in Pearl Harbor (2001)?

Ben Affleck plays Rafe, who volunteers to fly for the RAF before America enters the war and comes home to find his girl with his best friend.

Hawaii, annexed in 1898, held what political status when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor?

A US territory, Hawaii was not admitted as the 50th state until 1959, almost eighteen years after the attack.

Most of the Japanese carriers that struck Pearl Harbor were sunk half a year later in which battle?

Midway, in June 1942, broke up what had been the world's largest fleet of aircraft carriers and sank the raid's flagship, Akagi.

Which actress plays Navy nurse Evelyn Johnson, loved by both pilot friends, in the film Pearl Harbor (2001)?

Kate Beckinsale plays Evelyn, who takes up with Danny after Rafe is reported dead and is carrying Danny's child by the time the two men leave to bomb Tokyo.

Which country singer recorded There You'll Be, the hit ballad from the soundtrack of Pearl Harbor (2001)?

Faith Hill sang the ballad, written by Diane Warren, and it was nominated for both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

Which general, Japan's prime minister when Pearl Harbor was attacked, was hanged for war crimes in 1948?

Hideki Tojo had been appointed prime minister by Emperor Hirohito only that October, and he held the post until 1944.

Which 1953 Best Picture winner, about soldiers stationed in Hawaii, builds to the attack on Pearl Harbor?

From Here to Eternity also won Frank Sinatra a supporting-actor Oscar, and it was shot on location at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.

Which actor plays Danny Walker, Rafe's boyhood friend and fellow fighter pilot, in Pearl Harbor (2001)?

Josh Hartnett plays Danny, who wins a Silver Star and promotion to captain for getting airborne during the attack, then volunteers for a secret mission.

Which actor plays Doris Miller, the ship's messman who takes over an anti-aircraft gun, in Pearl Harbor (2001)?

Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the real sailor from USS West Virginia, one of several historical figures written into the film's otherwise fictional story.

Which actor plays President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Pearl Harbor (2001)?

Jon Voight accepted the part after Gene Hackman turned it down, in the same year he played sportscaster Howard Cosell in Ali.

Which actor plays Jimmy Doolittle, leader of the bomber raid on Tokyo, in the film Pearl Harbor (2001)?

Alec Baldwin plays Doolittle, a part that was rewritten after Navy historians objected that the script made the famous airman boorish and oafish.

In Pearl Harbor (2001), Rafe McCawley leaves America to fly with which RAF unit of American volunteers?

Eagle Squadron let Americans fly for the RAF before their own country had entered the war, and Rafe ships out the day after telling Evelyn he has joined.

Which producer made Pearl Harbor (2001) with director Michael Bay?

Jerry Bruckheimer and Bay asked for $208 million, a budget that became a point of contention with Disney executives because so much of it was going on spectacle.

The screenwriter of Pearl Harbor (2001) made his name writing which Mel Gibson historical epic?

Braveheart was his first produced screenplay, begun after a trip to Scotland to learn more about his own Scottish roots.

In Pearl Harbor (2001), nurse Evelyn signs off pilot Rafe McCawley's medical exam despite which condition of his?

Dyslexia could have failed Rafe at his medical, and Evelyn's decision to pass him anyway is how the two of them begin their romance.

Before Pearl Harbor (2001), director Michael Bay and its lead actor worked together on which disaster film?

Armageddon was Bay's previous film, and one critic called Pearl Harbor a less successful attempt to repeat its success and that of Titanic.

After bombing Tokyo in Pearl Harbor (2001), Rafe and Danny run out of fuel and crash in which occupied country?

China is where the raiders come down, and Danny is mortally wounded in a gunfight with Japanese soldiers there, a firefight the film invented.

Hours after Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers caught MacArthur's air force on the ground in which American possession?

The Philippines lost about as many aircraft on the ground as Hawaii had, even though commanders there had nine hours' notice of the first attack.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was governed until 1944 under which emergency regime?

Martial law was declared within hours of the attack, and the Army's commanding general became military governor, with military courts replacing the civil ones.

Which Army general, charged with defending Hawaii, was removed from command ten days after the Pearl Harbor attack?

Walter Short was accused of dereliction of duty, but in 1999 the Senate passed a resolution saying he had done his job competently and professionally.

Which nimble Japanese carrier fighter escorted the bombers to Pearl Harbor and then strafed the parked aircraft?

Mitsubishi Zero fighters, 43 of them in the first wave alone, were sent for air control and strafing. At the time it was rated the most capable carrier fighter in the world.

Germany and Italy were allied to Japan at the time of Pearl Harbor through which agreement signed in Berlin in 1940?

The Tripartite Pact did not actually oblige them to join a war Japan had started, yet both declared war on the United States within days.

Which Army pilot drove from an all-night poker game to his fighter and shot down raiders over Pearl Harbor?

George Welch and his friend Kenneth Taylor each won the Distinguished Service Cross, and the heroes' dogfight in the 2001 film mirrors their morning.

Which future Hawaii senator, then a teenage Red Cross volunteer, tended wounded civilians as Pearl Harbor was attacked?

Daniel Inouye was a high school senior that morning. He later lost his right arm fighting in Europe with the 442nd Infantry Regiment.

General Marshall's last warning before Pearl Harbor reached Hawaii too late because it travelled by which service?

Western Union relayed it to San Francisco and RCA radioed it on, because the Army's own radio could not raise Honolulu. It reached Fort Shafter almost four hours after the attack began.

The bomb that blew up USS Arizona's forward magazine at Pearl Harbor had been converted from which other weapon?

A naval gun shell of 16-inch calibre had been reworked into an armor-piercing bomb, and the blast it set off caused nearly half of the day's American deaths.

Roosevelt's Infamy Speech to Congress opens its famous first sentence with which word?

Yesterday is the word that opens the speech. Roosevelt reworked the rest of that sentence by hand, at one point adding and then crossing out a closing phrase about the lack of warning.

Roosevelt kept his Pearl Harbor address short and concrete, unlike which predecessor's 1917 war message to Congress?

Woodrow Wilson had made a more abstract, idealistic appeal in 1917. Roosevelt still drew a link to it by bringing Wilson's widow, Edith, to the joint session.

The evening after his Pearl Harbor address to Congress, Roosevelt explained the war to the nation in which radio series?

Fireside chats were Roosevelt's informal radio talks, and an estimated 62 million people tuned in for this one, two days after the attack.

Roosevelt cast the opening sentence of his Pearl Harbor speech in which grammatical form, to stress America as victim?

The passive voice put the United States on the receiving end of the sentence instead of making Japan its subject, a deliberate choice to cast the country as the injured party.

Which of Roosevelt's sons, the eldest, escorted him in uniform to the Capitol for the Infamy Speech?

James carried the president's reading copy back to the White House afterwards and left it on top of a coat rack. It has not been seen since.

Which Roosevelt aide, with him when news of Pearl Harbor arrived, supplied the Infamy Speech's one significant addition?

Harry Hopkins could not believe the first report of the attack. His addition was the next-to-last paragraph, a pledge of confidence in the armed forces that he labeled Deity.

To which White House secretary did Roosevelt dictate the first draft of his Pearl Harbor message to Congress?

Grace Tully took down a draft of some 500 words, dictated without hesitation in the early evening, then typed it up for the president to edit by hand.

The as-delivered text of Roosevelt's Infamy Speech is kept at his presidential library in which New York town?

Hyde Park was Roosevelt's home, and the library he had dedicated there that summer was the first presidential library in the United States.

Roosevelt rejected a longer Pearl Harbor speech, reviewing the road to war, drafted by which Undersecretary of State?

Sumner Welles reviewed the events leading up to the attack. Roosevelt, whose two regular speechwriters were away in New York, kept to the short draft he had dictated himself.

Which vice president sat behind Roosevelt, beside Speaker Sam Rayburn, during the Infamy Speech to Congress?

Henry Wallace had become vice president that January. In 1944 the party put Harry Truman on the ticket in his place.

In Pearl Harbor (2001), Rafe and Danny grow up as boyhood friends playing in a biplane in which state?

Tennessee is where the film opens in 1923, with the two boys pretending to be combat airmen in the back of a biplane owned by Rafe's father.