A little more than 83 years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt called the Imperial Japanese Navy’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, “a date that will go down in history as a shame,” asking Congress to declare .
On Thursday, the president turned this historic event into a subject of humor.
Trump during a bilateral meeting with the Japanese prime minister, when a Japanese reporter asked him why he did not inform key US allies such as Japan before the start of the joint US-Israeli air campaign against Iran on February 28.
The president initially responded that the US “acted very forcefully” and “didn’t inform anyone because they wanted the element of surprise.”
However, his response took an awkward turn a few seconds later when he said: “”
After chuckles from American officials in the room, he turned to Takaichi — who was born two decades after the attack — and asked her one more question: “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” The room froze.
Shortly afterward, Trump returned to the original question, saying “we talk about surprise and that’s what we did.”
“And thanks to this surprise, we destroyed… probably 50%… and much more than we expected. If we announced it to everyone, there would be no surprise,” he added.
Deadliest attack on US soil
The surprise attack on the American fleet in the Pacific resulted in the death of more than 2,400 American servicemen and the wounding of nearly 1,200 more. Four American battleships were sunk and four more were severely damaged by the bombardment and gunfire attacks.
It was the deadliest attack on US soil until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Seven of the damaged ships were raised and returned to service, while the USS Arizona remains to this day where it sank below the surface of the harbor after an explosion in an ammunition depot.
The attack followed months of failed negotiations between Tokyo and Washington over economic sanctions imposed by the US, Britain, China and the Netherlands aimed at curbing Japan’s military capabilities.
Japan declared war on the US on the same day, but the official announcement reached Washington after the attack.
Pearl Harbor gave Roosevelt the political impetus to enter the US into World War II, with the House and Senate overwhelmingly approving the declaration of war.
Less than four years later, Japan accepted “unconditional surrender”, after dropping the first and only nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Japanese government has never formally apologized for the attack, although former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed “sincere and lasting condolences” in 2016 during a visit to the Pearl Harbor memorial.
Abe had then stressed that the US and Japan “must never again repeat the horrors of war”.
