An official with the new World War II Memorial has dispelled an Internet rumor that part of President Franklin Roosevelt's famous speech to the nation after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor engraved on the monument deliberately ends just before a reference to God.
Advertisement - story continues below
An e-mail circulating claims the inscription includes the following quote from near the end of the speech:
"With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph."
Advertisement - story continues below
In the original speech, Roosevelt added to the line: "So help us God."
In reality, a different quote from the Dec. 8, 1941, speech was used on the memorial, Betsy Glick, director of communications for the memorial, explained to WND.
"The truth is that part of the speech [with the reference to God] does not appear anywhere on the memorial," she said. "We only picked one sentence from that entire speech, and it is included in its entirety. It's about four paragraphs above the sentence that ends with 'so help us God.'"
Advertisement - story continues below
Glick speculated that the person who originated the e-mail about the memorial perhaps failed to remember the quote correctly.
The quote engraved on the memorial is: "Dec. 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy … No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory."
Advertisement - story continues below
Glick mentioned there were many political and military quotes submitted to be included on the memorial, and ultimately the Commission on Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission approved those that were inscribed.
"We wanted to pick something that commemorated the attack on Pearl Harbor," she said, "and that particular sentence directly relates to Pearl Harbor – that it was a premeditated invasion and that the American people would win absolute victory."
Advertisement - story continues below
The incorrect e-mail has an elderly lady visiting the memorial and reading out loud the quote that is not inscribed.
"Wait a minute," she is quoted as saying. "They left out the end of the quote. They left out the most important part. Roosevelt said 'so help us God.'"
"You're probably right," her husband says. "We're not supposed to say things like that now."
"The two shook their heads sadly and walked away," the bogus e-mail says.
Though many memorials and monuments throughout Washington, D.C., include references to God or Providence, a review of the inscriptions on the World War II Memorial on its website reveals no such quotes.
