798 State Papers and Addresses

habitants of the United Nations facing the treat of similar tragedy and degrad-
ation, the spirit that is America's, the spirit of those early Colonists of the Ark
and the Dove, is more than ever the torch of hope toward which the whole world
looks for guidance and preservation.

Tonight's second anniversary, -making the completion of one year of world-
wide war for our Country, takes on immeasurable magnitude by reason of
America's position in the forefront of world affairs today. That the United
Nations will be victorious in this epochal conflict, and the slavery which Hitler
and his Axis followers sought to fasten upon the whole world will not come to
pass, was ordained when the first Japanese bomb struck unsuspecting Pearl
Harbor that fateful December 7th, one year ago.

It can be said, I feel, without deprecating the unbelievably gallant achieve-
ments of our great English-speaking sister Nation, whose representative we are
proud to have with us this evening, that Japan scaled the fate of the Axis na-
tions by its dastardly attack upon American possessions. By that fateful act
there was enlisted against Hitler and his false ideologies, and upon the side of
Great Britain and the United Nations, a preponderance of power, the weight
of which no foe could possibly withstand.

The whole world throughout the ages to come will look with admiration
upon the heroism of the people of Britain who braved every threatened disaster,
including Dunkirk, certainly one of the sadest moments in all British history,
with the fortitude and the unshakeable belief in their nation's destiny that en-
abled them to stand off the heart-breaking odds that Germany had mustered
against them.

Whether even such magnificent military and civil performance without
assistance could have ultimately been a match for the tremendous military
machine that Hitler had established will never, of course, be determined. Cer-
tain it is, however, that the aggression of December 7th, 1941, tipped the scales
in favor of the Allies by bringing into play such a unified power of military and
industrial might as no one in the world could ever have conjectured. Starting
almost from scratch, so to speak, the United States has brought to bear in this
great conflict a wealth of manpower, planes, tanks and other war necessities.
These have made themselves felt on many fronts, but even now they are but a
promise of the greater forces to come.

With all this, therefore, I believe it can be safely maintained that the
events of one year ago in Hawaii, which we are memorializing tonight, will take
their place in history, along with the other momentous dates that have changed
the course of world events.

Today, after this twelve months period, America is ranged shoulder to
shoulder with England and the British Commonwealth, so ably represented
by our speaker this evening, and with all the gallant peoples of the United
Nations. Many of these, unfortunately, are groaning beneath such tyranny
and bestiality as have seldom been unleased upon any people anywhere. But,
like the English people after Dunkirk, they have not lost their faith in
the principles of decency and humanity, and they are fighting their fight, along