US President Donald Trump surprised Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaiči on Thursdaywhich he received at the White House, statement about the Japanese attack on the American base Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The latter mentioned when he defended the decision not to notify his allies in advance that he was going to launch an attack on Iran. TASR informs about it according to the reports of the AFP and Reuters agencies.
Trump was asked by one of the journalists present during an extremely friendly meeting with Takaichi why he did not inform US allies before the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. The president said that no one was told about the plans in advance. “We wanted a surprise. And who knows surprises better than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” the 79-year-old Republican president joked, seated next to Takaichi, referring to the United States naval base in Hawaii that was the target of a surprise strike by Japanese air and naval forces on Dec. 7, 1941.
According to several media outlets, the head of the White House obviously surprised the Japanese prime minister with his statement. According to Reuters, Takaičiová rolled her eyes and shifted in her chairwhen Trump recalled in the Oval Office the moment after which the US declared war on Japan and later became actively involved in World War II.
The attack on Pearl Harbor killed more than 2,000 Americans and damaged or destroyed most of the American fleet anchored at the base. The then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it “a day that will forever remain a day of shame” in a short speech before the US Congress.
The fighting between Imperial Japan and the Allied forces led by the USA continued until August 1945. A dramatic turn occurred after the American atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945), which had hundreds of thousands of victims. This was followed by the surrender of Japan, which was announced by Emperor Hirohito on August 15, 1945, and was formally signed on September 2 of that year.
For the Japanese, war history remains a sensitive subject. According to AFP, Takaičiová herself is known for her nationalist views; in the past, for example, she declared that Japan was waging a defensive war and that it too often apologized to Asian nations who endured suffering.
