President Donald Trump invoked Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor to justify keeping allies in the dark about US strikes on Iran, delivering the remark directly to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday.
A Japanese reporter asked why nations, including Japan, had not been warned before the 28 February military operation. Trump didn't hold back.
'We went in very hard, and we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise,' he said, before turning to Takaichi. 'Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?'
'You believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us,' he added.
Takaichi, Japan's first female prime minister, appeared visibly taken aback. The 64-year-old shifted in her seat as the room fell into uneasy silence after brief, cautious laughter. She did not respond.
Help Requested, Ally Embarrassed
The comment landed at a particularly awkward moment. Just over an hour before the meeting, Japan and five European nations issued a joint statement declaring their 'readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.' The UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan signed on after days of pressure from Trump, who had blasted allies for not deploying warships to the contested waterway.
Iran has effectively shut the Strait since the start of the conflict. Roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply normally flows through the narrow channel, and its closure has sent energy prices surging.
Trump acknowledged Japan's shift, saying Tokyo was 'really stepping up to the plate' before adding 'unlike NATO'. But the Pearl Harbor quip threatened to undercut that goodwill when Washington needed allied cooperation the most.
A Pacifist Nation Under Pressure
Deploying Japan's Self-Defence Forces abroad remains politically fraught. The country's post-war constitution, imposed by the US after World War II, renounces war and makes armed action overseas legally questionable. Recent polling suggests Takaichi's approval ratings have started to dip as the Iran war drives up energy costs for Japanese households.
In her opening remarks, Takaichi condemned Iran's 'attacks in the region' and the 'effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.' She called Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons 'unacceptable' and balanced that with flattery, telling Trump, 'I firmly believe that it is only you, Donald, that can achieve peace across the world.'
The two leaders also announced $73 billion (£54 billion) in new Japanese investment in the US, covering nuclear reactors in Tennessee and Alabama and natural gas facilities in Pennsylvania and Texas.
The $200 Billion War Bill
The meeting also touched on the cost of the Iran conflict. The Pentagon has sent a request to the White House for more than $200 billion (£149 billion) in additional military funding. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the figure at a separate briefing, saying it 'could move', adding that, 'It takes money to kill bad guys.'
Trump defended the request, saying it covered needs 'beyond even what we're talking about in Iran.' He blamed depleted ammunition stockpiles on aid previously sent to Ukraine under the Biden administration.
Pearl Harbor, 85 Years Later
Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 killed more than 2,400 Americans and pulled the US into World War II. The two nations have been formal allies since 1952, and in 2016, then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the memorial to offer his 'sincere and everlasting condolences.'
But for many watching Thursday's exchange, the lasting image from the Oval Office wasn't about defence budgets or energy deals. It was the look on Japan's first female leader's face when the president she'd just publicly praised asked why she didn't warn him about Pearl Harbor.
