U.S. President Donald Trump surprised Japan’s prime minister on Thursday by mentioning the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, a seemingly light-hearted remark that is sure to unsettle a country that has become a staunch U.S. ally.
In a particularly friendly meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Trump told reporters why he did not notify allies before the Feb. 28 U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran.
“We didn’t tell anyone about it because we wanted to be surprised. Who knows surprises better than Japan, okay?” Trump said in the Oval Office.
The 79-year-old president looked at Takaichi and said, “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, okay?”
Takaichi, who relied on a translator, said nothing but seemed to stifle a slight sigh as he shifted in his chair, and at least one groan was heard in the room packed with American and Japanese reporters.
On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan launched a preemptive attack on the key U.S. Pacific base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, hoping to deliver a decisive blow before the United States entered World War II.
More than 2,400 Americans were killed in the attack, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt said would be “infamous.” The United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, ending World War II, the only use of nuclear weapons in history.
Wartime history remains delicate for Japan, which for decades has forged a close alliance with the United States and hopes to move beyond the memory of the conflict.
Koichi, who is herself known for her nationalist views, said Japan had fought a defensive war in the past and apologized too much to suffering Asian countries.
Last year, Trump made yet another eye-popping reference to World War II when he met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, telling him that the Normandy invasion of Nazi-occupied France by Allied forces was “not a good day for you.”
Merz responded that the Germans owed a debt to the Americans because in the long term “it was the liberation of my country from the Nazi dictatorship.”
Trump has defended his attack on Iran by saying Iran is on the verge of becoming nuclear-armed, a claim not supported by the U.N. nuclear watchdog and most observers, and has called on the Iranians to overthrow their clerical state, although he has stopped short of targeting regime change.
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