Just four days after the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour, the Japanese Ambassador Oshima, on December 8, paid a visit to the German foreign minister Von Ribbentrop.
The visit, however, was to convince their German allies to join them in the war against the United States. The German foreign minister Von Ribbentrop was quite aware that Germany was under no duty to engage in this war in line with the terms of the Tripartite Pact, which promised help if Japan was attacked but not if Japan was the instigator. Von Ribbentrop, the German foreign minister, feared that taking on another enemy would bury their war effort as the Germans were warring against the Russians.
Notwithstanding, the German leader gave his support to the Japanese allies. The German leader publicly cut ties with the United States, labelling her an enemy state, and although not sure how to go about the war, Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States.
On Tuesday, December 9, Hitler arrived in Berlin, where he met with Goebbels at noon. He stated his plan to declare war on the United States in his speech to Reichstag. Still, he postponed the announcement for 24 hours to buy some time to prepare for the impending battle ahead.
The German leader Adolf Hitler declared certain that if he had not done it, the Americans would have declared war against them first, leaving them in a defensive position. As it was, the U.S. Navy was already attacking German U-boats, and Hitler disliked Roosevelt for the constant discrimination of his Nazi ideology also believed that Japan was much stronger than it appeared and thought that after the United States had been defeated, together the German allied Japanese force would defeat the Russians.
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Hitler was said to have made this declaration without consultation; It has been referred to as Hitler’s “most puzzling” decision of World War II. Hitler addressed the Reichstag to defend the declaration. At 3:00 pm, Hitler addressed the 855 deputies of the Reichstag gathered in the Kroll Opera House, with a speech lasting for 88 minutes in which he listed German successes to date. Hitler stated that the Failure of the New Deal was the cause of the war.
He mentioned that the United States President Roosevelt, supported by plutocrats and Jews, tried to conceal the collapse of his economic agenda. “First he incites war, then falsifies the causes, then odiously wraps himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy and slowly but surely leads mankind to war,” declared Hitler.
On December 10 Hitler had an extra meeting with Goebbels to finalize the planning, although Hitler had not worked on his speech, the time announced for the hearing was at 3:00 pm as it was the best time to convey the message to German radio listeners and the broadcast could be furtherly received in Tokyo at 10 pm and Washington DC by 8 am.
The foreign minister Ribbentrop called the German ambassador in Rome to contact Mussolini and guarantee that Italy’s declaration of war would be made known at the same time that the Germans broadcasted.
The United States were however aware of German intentions through Magic signals intelligence, on December 9, Roosevelt gave a broadcast in which he said the American people should;
“Remember always that Germany and Italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the United States at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with Britain or Russia”.
On December 11, Churchill spoke in the House of Commons saying; “Not only the British Empire now but the United States are fighting for life; Russia is fighting for life, and China is fighting for life. Behind these four great combatant communities are all the free spirit and hopes of all the conquered countries in Europe… It would indeed bring shame upon our generation if we did not teach them a lesson which will not be forgotten in the records of a thousand years”.
Also, on Thursday, December 11 1941, the American Chargé d’Affaires Leland B. Morris, the highest ranking American diplomat in Germany, was requested at the office of the Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop where Ribbentrop read Morris the formal declaration; the meeting lasted from 2:18 to 2:21 pm.
Chargé d’Affaires
The Government of the United States has violated in the most flagrant manner and in ever-increasing measure all rules of neutrality in favour of the adversaries of Germany and has continually been guilty of the most severe provocations toward Germany ever since the outbreak of the European war, provoked by the British declaration of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, has finally resorted to open military acts of aggression.
On September 11, 1941, the President of the United States publicly declared that he had ordered the American Navy and Air Force to shoot on sight at any German war vessel. In his speech of October 27, 1941, he once more expressly affirmed that this order was in force.
Acting under this order, vessels of the American Navy, since early September 1941, have systematically attacked German naval forces. Thus, American destroyers, for instance, the Greer, the Kearney and the Reuben James opened fire on German submarines according to plan. The Secretary of the American Navy, Mr Knox, himself confirmed that American destroyers attacked German submarines.
Furthermore, the naval forces of the United States, under the order of their Government and contrary to international law have treated and seized German merchant vessels on the high seas as enemy ships.
The German Government, therefore, establishes the following facts:
Although Germany on her part has strictly adhered to the rules of international law in her relations with the United States during every period of the present war, the Government of the United States from initial violations of neutrality has finally proceeded to open acts of war against Germany. The Government of the United States has thereby virtually created a state of war.
The German Government, consequently, discontinues diplomatic relations with the United States of America and declares that under these circumstances brought about by President Roosevelt Germany too, as of today, considers herself as being in a state of war with the United States of America.
Accept, Mr Charge d’Affaires, the expression of my high consideration.
December 11, 1941.
RIBBENTROP.
