President Trump brought up Pearl Harbor while seated next to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office on Thursday, as he explained why the U.S. didn't give allies like Japan a heads-up before striking Iran. 

A Japanese reporter asked Mr. Trump why the U.S. didn't alert allies like Japan ahead of the Iran strikes, a decision that the reporter said "confused" the Japanese. The president, in his response, said his administration "didn't tell anyone" about the Feb. 28 military action in advance. 

"Well one thing, you don't want to signal too much, you know?" Mr. Trump said. "When we go in, we went in very hard. And we didn't tell anyone about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? OK? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? OK? Right?"

"We had to surprise them, and we did," the president said of Iran. "... If I go and tell everybody about it, there's no longer a surprise." 

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and President Trump in the Oval Office on March 19, 2026.  Pool/CBS News

Takaichi appeared taken aback by the president's remarks, her eyes momentarily widening. Takaichi speaks some English but largely spoke through a translator at the event. 

Later in the day, the White House posted a photo of the two leaders together, both with thumbs up. 

President Donald J. Trump and Japanese Prime Minister @takaichi_sanae. 🇺🇸🤝🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/grhiffju8t

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 19, 2026

Japan and the U.S. have officially been allies since 1952, although the scars from World War II took longer to heal in many cases. 

In 2016, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a somber visit to the Pearl Harbor memorial site alongside then-President Barack Obama. Abe offered his "sincere and everlasting condolences" to the Americans who lost their lives in the surprise Japanese attack of Dec. 7, 1941, and in all of World War II. Abe said he was "rendered entirely speechless" by the deaths of so many U.S. service members. More than 2,400 Americans were killed in the Pearl Harbor attack.

"On behalf of the Japanese people, I hereby wish to express once again my heartfelt gratitude to the United States and to the world for the tolerance extended to Japan," Abe said at the time. "...Japan and the United States, which fought a fierce war that will go down in the annals of human history, have become allies with strong ties rarely found anywhere in history."

Mr. Trump also had strong ties with Abe, a friendship that hasn't been matched with more recent prime ministers. Abe was assassinated during a speech in Japan in 2022. 

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