The symbolic meanings attached to Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor have greatly affected American foreign policy in the postwar period. At the time, the U.S. regarded Pearl Harbor as a “sneak attack” and it soon became an icon of enemy treachery. President Roosevelt’s now famous “infamy” speech solidified Pearl Harbor’s place in popular memory and-by emphasizing that the attack happened on American soil-justified America’s military action as both righteous revenge and protecting the homeland.
In subsequent decades, the legacy of Pearl Harbor brought other profound changes to American diplomacy and national security policy. In the wake of the attack, the U.S. abandoned isolationism and expanded the production and supply of armaments in order to, ostensibly, defend American soil from future attacks. When such an attack occurred on September 11, 2001, policy makers once again looked to Pearl Harbor as a fitting symbol. George W. Bush, for instance, referenced Pearl Harbor in his first post-9/11 address, and subsequent policy decisions in many ways reflected American responses to the 1941 attack. As a result, the U.S. has once again adopted a foreign policy stance that combines homeland defense with righteous revenge.