When asked by a reporter about why the U.S. didn't share their Iran war plans with Japan, President Donald Trump said it was necessary for the element of surprise. The president followed this with a joke, saying, "Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Ok, why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?"

“Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Ok, why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”

“You believe in surprise, much more so than us.”

  • slowtrain33@lemmy.mlEnglish
    29·
    1 day ago

    The question he was answering was “why didn’t you tell your allies (like Japan) before attacking Iran?”

    So his sarcastic answer of “why didn’t you tell the US before attacking us in WWII?” is dumb, tone deaf, and offensive.

    Dumb because Japan and the US were enemies when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor… so why tf would the tell us beforehand? The question was “Why didn’t you tell your allies you were going to attack Iran,” not “Why didn’t you tell Iran you were going to attack Iran?”.

    Tone deaf because he’s trying to making a joke in response to a serious question about war, and bringing up a sensitive topic between our two countries.

    And offensive because he’s making it sound like Japan were the only ones who did awful things when we fought in WWII. Hot take probably, but the US did far more heinous things to Japan in WWII than they did to the US.