Across the United States, the country recoiled on this date in 1941 at the alarming news of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the declaration of war by the Japanese.
Pearl Harbor was then a largely unknown location to most Americans. A shocked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would famously announce on radio that the surprise raid was “a date that will live in infamy.” The famous phrase is still one of the most heart wrenching and well-known exclamations in history.
In a Fargo Forum “Extra” newspaper edition on that December 7th Sunday evening was one of countless “Extras” across the country. The newspapers and radio reports disclosed a preliminary estimate of 104 dead and more than 300 wounded in the army alone. From there, the casualty count exploded as the extent of the disaster became known. There were more than 2,300 Americans dead.
At the war’s outset, life changed for most of the world, and also changed was the standard of journalism following the march to battle. Pages of daily newspapers and radio broadcasts would never be the same.
One such early reminder of war casualties was on the front page as a Moorhead youth was reported to be among the crew members lost on the U.S.S. Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor. He was Jess E. Trousdale.
Jess had enlisted in the Navy on July 25th. In October, while on furlough, he visited his parents in Moorhead, but was called back with orders to report to the Great Lakes Naval Station from where he was assigned to the Oklahoma.
His life, sacrificed in service to his nation, would be followed by daily reminders of injury and death, now that we were a country at war.
Daktoa Datebook by Steve Stark
References:
Fargo Forum and Daily Republican newspaper Dec 7, 1941
The Everything World War II Book
