The keys
nuevo
Generated with AI
nuevo
Generated with AI
In another of his awkward jokes directed at a world leader, Donald Trump resorted this Thursday, during a summit with the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichito a joke about the Japanese attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor during World War II to explain that Washington wanted to start the war against Iran by “surprise” and that is why it did not warn its allies.
“It is not advisable to give too many signals. When we took action – and we have done so with great force – we did not tell anyone, because we were looking for the surprise factor,” explained the Republican president, when asked by a Japanese reporter who told him that Tokyo was very surprised by the fact that the White House did not notify the Asian country or the European allies in advance about the bombings against the Islamic Republic.
“And who knows more about surprises than Japan? Why didn’t they warn me about Pearl Harbor?” Trump then joked in front of the Japanese prime minister in the Oval Office. “They know more about surprises than we do,” Trump added. For decades, American presidents avoided speaking harshly about the bombing of Japanese planes against the Pacific base to deepen ties with Tokyo. But traditional diplomacy does not fit the current occupant of the White House.
Trump’s uncomfortable joke about Pearl Harbor with the Japanese prime minister
As Trump spoke these words, Takaichi opened his eyes wide and seemed to take a deep breath. He kept his hands crossed in his lap and did not comment on the matter at any time, displaying total coldness.
The Japanese attack on the naval base on the island of Hawaii in December 1941 not only marked the entry of the United States into the Pacific War, but until 9/11 it was the attack that left the most American victims (more than 2,400) on national soil.
It is, along with the dropping of two American atomic bombs on Japan, one of the episodes that Washington and Tokyo usually avoid mentioning as much as possible within the framework of their diplomatic relations. In fact, during the Cold War, Washington described the attack on Pearl Harbor as a historic tragedy, turning the page on that “day of infamy” speech, as President Roosevelt had defined it.
In 2016, Barack Obama visited the Pacific island and the site of the attack accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Both laid wreaths of white peace lilies at the memorial. The US president stressed that the visit reminded “what is possible between nations and peoples.”
Trump’s words are not the first in this sense, as he has had similar episodes with European leaders.
Last January the American president said at the Davos Economic Forum that without the help of the United States in World War II, the people of that German-speaking commune in Switzerland (a country that was also neutral in the conflict) and the rest of Europe would be “speaking German.”
During a joint appearance with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last year, Trump also said that the Allied D-Day landings in Normandy were not “a pleasant day” for the Germans. The German leader was quick to clarify that the Germans celebrate the success of that operation, which was key to the defeat of Nazism and to ending the conflict in Europe.
Leave a Reply