On December 7, 1941, the empire of Japan launched a surprise attack upon Pearl Harbor, the event that directly led to the FDR's speech and thereby the Congressional declaration of war against that empire, of which, most Americans, are quite aware of this seminal event. On the other hand, most people are somewhat or nearly completely unaware, that in the early morning hours of December 8, 1941, the empire of Japan led yet another very successful and devastating attack upon the United States, in particular, its commonwealth of the Philippines, and further, the empire of Japan followed up their aerial bombardment with ground troops to thereby conquer and to take over this commonwealth, of which, the empire of Japan was successful in so doing. One reason why this should matter a heck of a lot more to Americans, then it apparently does historically, is that according to Wikipedia.org, "In 1939, a census of the Philippines was taken and determined that it had a population of 16,000,303;" of which, this compares to a population of the territory of Hawaii as of 1939, of just 470,000 peoples. In addition, because Filipinos were legally U.S. nationals, this meant that as U.S. nationals that they were permitted to live and work anywhere in the United States without restriction, and additionally were eligible to apply for citizenship. In other words, when the empire of Japan conquered the Philippines, they conquered the U.S. nationals of America in the Philippines, as well as defeating the United States troops, so stationed in the Philippines.
So that, during World War II, it can and should be stated, that just over 16 million U.S. nationals were under the control and domain of the empire of Japan, and it was not until September 2, 1945, after many such battles and bloody fighting, that the empire of Japan officially surrendered to the United States so that the Philippines once more was ruled as a commonwealth of the United States. In fact, as reported by ww2db.com, it is estimated that the Philippines' people suffered 57,000 military casualties, and an astonishing 900,000 civilian deaths; numbers which indicate the stunning tragedy of this part of the Pacific war.
In 1946, the Philippines achieved its long desired independence from the United States, so that, Filipinos were no longer U.S. nationals, and hence no longer permitted the rights of U.S. nationals; additionally, those that were born during the time that the Philippines was a commonwealth of the United States, were not legally "grandfathered" into still being classified as a U.S. national. Nevertheless, at the time of the attack by the empire of Japan, and during the battles between that empire and the United States, all those having been born within the Philippines, were U.S. nationals, and therefore their deaths were deaths of U.S. nationals, indicating that as reported by nationalwarIImuseum.org, that the USA not only suffered a combined total of 418,500 military and civilian deaths in World War II; but in reality, suffered through its commonwealth of the Philippines, nearly one million more that died, making the initial surprise attack upon the Philippines, not only as a day that should live forever on in infamy; but also that its bloody and cruel aftermath should be properly seen as a tragedy and an atrocity, of proportions not readily known or recognized to these United States.