the exposition of Japanese-American relations and the lengthy but unsuccessful effort to find a peaceful solution. However, Roosevelt kept the speech brief in the belief that it would have a more dramatic effect. Roosevelt's revised statement was stronger for its emphatic insistence that posterity would endorse the American view of the attack. It was intended not merely as a personal response by Roosevelt, but as a statement on behalf of the all-American people in the face of great collective trauma. According to sociologist Jeffrey C. Alexander and other authors of the book Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity, the speech worked to crystallize and channel the response of the nation into a collective response and resolve. The first paragraph of the speech was worded to reinforce Roosevelt's portrayal of the United States as a victim of unprovoked Japanese aggression. The initial draft read, "a date which will live in world history". Roosevelt rephrased it as "a date which will live in infamy." The wording was deliberately passive. Rather than speaking in the active voice ("Japan attacked the United States"), Roosevelt chose to speak in the passive voice to emphasize America's status as a victim. Roosevelt said: Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.The United States was at peace with that Nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American Island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack. Roosevelt said that the distance from Japan to Hawaii made it obvious that the attack was planned "days or even weeks ago". The theme of "innocence violated" was further reinforced by the mention of the ongoing diplomatic negotiations with Japan, which Roosevelt characterized as having been pursued cynically and dishonestly by the Japanese government while it was secretly preparing for war against the United States. He consciously sought to avoid making the sort of more abstract