The

government of the United Kingdom ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal coat of arms of t ...

declared war on the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent for ...

on 8 December 1941, following the Japanese attacks on British Malaya,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

on the previous day as well as in response to the bombing of the US fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Background

The United Kingdom declared war on Nazi Germany on September 3, 1939 two days after the outbreak of war in Europe. The

and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

had signed the

Anti-Comintern Pact The Anti-Comintern Pact, officially the Agreement against the Communist International was an anti-Communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on 25 November 1936 and was directed against the Communist International ( ...

in 1936, to counter the perceived threat of the

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society ...

of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. During negotiations with the administration of U.S. President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had promised to declare war "within the hour" of a Japanese attack on the United States. On 7/8 December 1941, Japan attacked British and American territories in Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific with near-simultaneous offensives including an attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor..

Decision and communication

News of the attack on Pearl Harbor reached London first. Realizing that President Roosevelt would go through the formal process of asking the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

for a declaration of war, Churchill began making preparations to deliver the UK's own declaration of war immediately after Congress had formally declared war. After learning British territory had also been attacked, the British Prime Minister decided there was no need to wait for Congress to act and promptly summoned the Japanese Ambassador to Britain. The British

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown Minister of the Crown is a formal constitutional term used in Commonwealth realms to describe a minister ...

Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid pro ...

, was in transit to Moscow at the time, so Churchill was in charge of the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

. Churchill instructed the British Ambassador to Japan to inform the Japanese government that a state of war exists between the two countries and drafted a letter to the Ambassador of Japan to the United Kingdom to inform him of this. Of the letter, Churchill later wrote: "Some people did not like this ceremonial style. But after all when you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite."LIFE magazine 27 sep 1954
says this is in ''

The Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

'' The United Kingdom declared war on Japan nine hours before the U.S. The earlier declaration by the UK was due to the Japanese attacks on the British colonies of Malaya,

, and

, and also due to the fact that the British did not have the American constitutional tradition of requiring the consent of its own national legislature to declare war - the British cabinet could declare war without consulting

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...

, and therefore could act more quickly.Staff (15 December 1941
"The U.S. At War, The Last Stage"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

Text of Churchill's letter

The text of his letter to the Japanese Ambassador was as follows:

References

Sources

* Churchill, Winston S., ''

'' (vol. 3): The Grand Alliance'' (1950) . * . {{Authority control Military history of Japan during World War II United Kingdom in World War II 1941 in the United Kingdom 1941 in Japan Japan–United Kingdom military relations Declarations of war during World War II 1941 in international relations 1941 in military history British Empire in World War II December 1941 events 1941 documents

Background

Decision and communication

Text of Churchill's letter

See also

References

Sources