After the Day of Infamy:
"Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor
“Man on the Street Interviews” presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941 (the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), Alan Lomax, then "assistant in charge" of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center), sent a telegram to fieldworkers in ten different localities across the United States, asking them to collect "man-on-the-street" reactions of ordinary Americans to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by the United States. A second series of interviews, called "Dear Mr. President," was recorded in January and February 1942. Both collections are included in this presentation. They feature a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes. The result is a portrait of everyday life in America as the United States entered World War II.
The online presentation, After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor consists of more than two hundred interviews recorded from December 1941 to February 1942. In most cases, the recordings were digitized by Library of Congress staff directly from the discs on which they were originally recorded. The only editing redacted interviewee names from several recordings and removed Leadbelly's two songs for which permissions have not yet been received. Otherwise, the recordings are presented as they were originally recorded.
For a detailed listing:
"Man-on-the-Street" Interviews, December 8-10, 1941
(Item numbers AFS 6357-6375; 6453-6454; Collection number AFC 1941/004)
* AFS 6357-6359
Three 16-inch discs recorded in Washington, D.C., by Philip H. Cohen and Alan Lomax.
* AFS 6360
One 12-inch disc recorded at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, by Robert E. Barton Allen.
* AFS 6361
One 12-inch disc recorded at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, by Charles S. Johnson and Lewis Jones.
* AFS 6362-6364
Three 12-inch discs recorded in New York, New York, by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin.
* AFS 6365-6366
Two 12-inch discs recorded in Burlington, North Carolina, by Fletcher Collins.
* AFS 6367
One 12-inch disc recorded in Madison, Wisconsin, by Leland Coon.
* AFS 6368-6372
Five 12-inch discs recorded in Austin, Texas, by John Henry Faulk.
* AFS 6373-6375
Three 12-inch discs recorded in Dallas, Texas, by John A. Lomax.
* AFS 6453
One 16-inch disc recorded in Denver, Colorado, by Duncan Emrich.
* AFS 6454
One 16-inch disc recorded in Buffalo, New York, by Charles T. Harrell.
"Dear Mr. President" Interviews, recorded January-February 1942
(Item numbers: 6397-6452; 6455-6463; Collection Number 1942/003)
* AFS 6397-6401; 6455
Five 8-inch discs recorded in Bloomington, and Mishawaka, Indiana, by Robert E. Barton Allen.
* AFS 6402-6406
Five 12-inch discs recorded in Austin, Texas, by John Henry Faulk.
* AFS 6407-6414
Eight 12-inch discs recorded in New York, New York, by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin.
* AFS 6415; 6426; 6428
Three 12-inch discs recorded in Detroit, Michigan, at radio station WJR.
* AFS 6416; 6427
Two 16-inch discs recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at WLB, University of Minnesota.
* AFS 6417-6419
Three 12-inch discs recorded in Alamance County, North Carolina, by Fletcher Collins.
* AFS 6420-6422; 6451
Four 12-inch discs recorded in Middlebury, Vermont, by Helen Hartness Flanders and Marguerite Olney.
* AFS 6423-6425; 6429; 6458 (duplicate of AFS 6429)
Four 12-inch discs recorded in Galena and Crane, Missouri; and Fayetteville and Farmington, Arkansas, by Vance Randolph.
* AFS 6430-6436
Seven 12-inch discs recorded in Granbury, Austin, and Hood County, Texas, by John Henry Faulk.
* AFS 6437-6444
Eight 12-inch discs recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, by Charles S. Johnson and Lewis Jones.
* AFS 6445-6450
Six 12-inch discs recorded in Tucson, Arizona, by Harry Behn.
* AFS 6452
One 16-inch disc recorded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by William N. Robson.
* AFS 6463
One 12-inch disc recorded in Denver, Colorado, by Duncan Emrich.
