Despite Hawaii not yet having become a state, the Pearl Harbor attack is widely regarded as being an attack on the United States. Was there any significant public opposition to war after the attack due to sentiment that the attack wasn't really "on U.S. soil"?

by gdawg99

jdrama83

It wasn't a state but it was still a territory, and it isn't as if they attacked some random Hawaiian city, they attacked a US military base.

iwinagin

Not really. When Franklin D. Roosevelt asked congress to declare war on Dec 8, 1941 there was only a single dissenting vote. Jeannette Rankin, congresswoman from Montana. She was a committed pacifist her stated reason for dissenting "As a woman, I can't go to war and I refuse to send anyone else"

After voting against war she required a police escort out of The Capitol Building. From 1939 to 1941 an intense debate raged concerning whether the US should enter WWII. Those not in favor became nearly completely silent after Pearl Harbor.