'Who knows better about surprise than Japan?': Trump draws parallel between Pearl Harbor and US strikes on Iran in meeting with Japanese PM Takaichi

'We wanted surprise,' Trump says when asked why allies were not included in talks about the Iran strikes before they happened

President Donald Trump has drawn a parallel between US strikes on ⁠Iran and Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, as he defended ‌the war against Tehran ​at a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Washington.

"We wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why ​didn't you tell ⁠me about Pearl Harbor?" Trump said on Thursday when a journalist asked why allies were not included in talks about the Iran strikes before they happened.

There was some laughter from officials and journalists gathered in the room. “You believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us,” he added.

Takaichi's eyes ‌widened and she shifted in her ⁠chair as Trump, seated beside her in the Oval Office, evoked ‌the moment that drew the US ‌into World War II.

The Japanese ‌attack on the US naval ‌base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, killed 2,390 Americans, and the US declared war ⁠on Japan ⁠the next day. The United States defeated Japan in August 1945, days after US atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ​killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. 

Praises Takaichi’s English fluency

Earlier, the meeting at the Oval Office began on a lighter note, with Trump praising Takaichi’s English fluency and joking about skipping translation.

“Do you understand this? Very good, I’ll tell you. It's so nice that we don’t have to sit through that [the translation],” Trump said, drawing smiles.

"That's very good. I haven't picked up your language. The next time you come, I will have your language passed," Trump said, suggesting he would try to learn Japanese before Takaichi's next visit.

(With agency inputs)