American Radiowork’s documentary shares Americans’ memories
The day after the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Library of Congress folklorist Alan Lomax sent a telegram to his peers throughout the country, asking them to record the fresh reactions of ordinary Americans as they learned of the devastating attack which engaged the U.S. in WWII.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress immediately saw echos to Pearl Harbor, prompting them to put out a second call for recordings. In the days and weeks following September 11, 2001, librarians, journalists, historians and folklorists once again set out to capture the voices of Americans as they reacted to their changed world.
American Radioworks and The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University co-produced this collection of post 9/11 stories into the sixty-year old Pearl Harbor tapes to create a powerful audio documentary titled “Days of Infamy”. Originally released on the one-year anniversary of 9/11, “Days of Infamy” weaves the memories of Senator Daniel Inouye, Helen Thomas, Pete Seeger and other prominent Americans who lived through both attacks into the voices of ordinary citizens of both eras to provide context and connective threads. Click on the link to get to American Radiowork’s home page, then click on ‘Full Audio” button under “Resources” on the left to download RealPlayer and listen to this evocative production.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/daysofinfamy/
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