In yet another embarrassing moment for the United States, Donald Trump made a pathetic attempt at a “joke” about Pearl Harbor during an Oval Office sit-down with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
The moment came after reporters asked Trump why he hadn’t informed Japan and other allies in advance of his attack against Iran. Rather than give a straight answer, Trump chose to insult Japan instead by demanding to know why he wasn’t informed about Pearl Harbor in 1941, five and a half years before he was even born.
“Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay, why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” Trump said. “You believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us. And we had a surprise, and we did, and because of that surprise, we knocked out, the first two days, we probably knocked out 50% of what we — and much more than we anticipated doing. So if I go and tell everybody about it, there’s no longer a surprise, right?”
Once again, Trump treats one of our allies like a punchline, as if we are supposed to continue holding a grudge against Japan for something that happened 85 years ago. Just in case Trump isn’t aware, the United States military already avenged the deaths at Pearl Harbor by winning the war against Japan and the fascists who once controlled their government.
Just like the fascists in Japan back in 1941, Trump is a fascist who is launching surprise attacks against countries that have done nothing to provoke such action. But today, Japan is a democracy. It is Japan that is working toward a more peaceful world. And Japan has spent decades working to make amends for the sins of its past, something the United States refuses to do.
If we continue to allow Donald Trump to remain in power, we won’t have any allies left, and we’ll be the ones apologizing for decades while trying to convince the world that we have learned from our mistakes.
