World War II: Commemorating Pearl Harbor, 1941

Remember Dec. 7th! Office of War Information, 1942. (GLC09520.08)Following the Japanese bombardment of the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan and Germany and immediately mobilized the country for war. "Remember Dec. 7th!" is a propaganda poster intended to promote a sense of nationalism and boost support for the war effort. It combines imagery suggesting the destruction of the base—smoke and a tattered American flag—with a quotation from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain." Invoking Lincoln could both give comfort to Americans and remind them of the sacrifice of previous generations.

Printed early in 1942, it uses the phrase "Remember Dec. 7th" rather than "Remember Pearl Harbor," which is a slogan that became prevalent later in the war.