STORY: President Donald Trump on Thursday (March 19) drew a parallel between U.S. strikes on Iran and Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor decades ago, 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 when a journalist asked why he had not told allies about his war plans.

"You believe in surprise, I think much more so than us."

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 U.S. into World War Two.

The Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, killed 2,390 Americans, and the U.S. declared war on Japan the next day.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it "a date which will live in infamy."

The U.S. defeated Japan in August 1945, days after U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

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Trump jokes about Pearl Harbor with Japanese PM to explain surprise Iran attack

VIDEO SHOWS: U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP MEETING WITH JAPAN'S PM SANAE TAKAICHI

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (MARCH 19, 2026) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

1. WIDE OF U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP MEETING WITH JAPAN'S PM SANAE TAKAICHI AT THE WHITE HOUSE

2. JOURNALISTS AT MEETING

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: (Responding to a Japanese journalist's question about why the U.S. didn't inform it allies in Europe and Asia ahead of the attacks on Iran.)

"Well, one thing, you don't want to signal too much. You know, when we go in, we went in very hard, and we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted... Surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay, why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Okay, right? He's asking me. No, 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 did and much more than we anticipated doing."

4. WIDE OF MEETING