Today, December 7, marks the 70th anniversary of the event that propelled us into World War II: The attack by Japan on our military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In observance of this, we are featuring two items from our collections: The Chattanooga Sunday Times edition from December 7, 1941, announcing the attack; and a photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, wearing a black arm band, subsequently signing the Declaration of War against Japan.
The newspaper is from the James B. Frazier, Jr. Papers, one of several congressional collections held in the Special Collections. Mr. Frazier was a congressman from the Third District of Tennessee from 1948-1962. Prior to his congressional years, Mr. Frazier was a US Attorney for East Tennessee.
The photograph of President Roosevelt is part of the John Rous Collection of political photographs. Mr. Rous was an Associated Press photographer, and a native Chattanoogan. After his death in the 1990s, his personal collection of photos he took, and those shared with him by his colleagues, were donated to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. It is not known whether Mr. Rous personally took this photo.