I'm writing an essay about the rhetoric FDR used in the speech asking congress to declare war on Japan. I can't find this anywhere. Did people watch FDR ask for declaration of war and did this lead to a bunch of americans enlisting? Whenever I would google it post 9-11 enlistment articles would come up. Thank you!
Don't forget there was a large military build up happening in the United States even before Pearl Harbor. We had the Lend-Lease deal with our allies to make munitions, but we were also expanding the size of the Army and so forth.
To your questions: The vast majority of Americans would have listened to the speech on the radio, though the speech was filmed (you can watch a clip of it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufoUtoQLGQY). NBC and CBS had just launched that very year, for example. Very few Americans would have had a television in their home at this point in time.
To your second question. That's really difficult to say with any exact certainty. In other words, did the speech motivate people to enlist or did the attack itself. We're talking about a 48 hour time span so its difficult to parse out. FDR gave his "Day of Infamy" speech just one day after Pearl Harbor was attacked. The best answer is probably a combination of the two - some men enlisted right away after the attack, but for many others it was a slow roll. People took care of their affairs at home or waited until after the holidays (or end of the semester) to enlist in some cases.
In his oral history (available on UC Berkeley's website) WWII veteran Bernard Weisberger recalled, "It was Sunday. I had moved to Queens by then, and I was about to go into New York for an afternoon concert at the New York Philharmonic. I said to my parents, 'Let me turn on [the radio] and hear the football score.' The New York Giants were playing somebody. I got this, 'We interrupt to bring you a special bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.' So we all look at each other. What the hell? Hawaii? That’s over here, on our side of the ocean. We gave each other this blank look, my mother and stepfather and I. Oh, it’s a mistake they’ll apologize for tomorrow. Because that was the thought. How could this happen?"
Weisberger learned the report was true several hours later. He finished his studies at Columbia before becoming a Japanese code breaker during the war. This is just one example, but I thought you'd find it of interest.