Trump cracks another awkward joke about Japan and Pearl Harbour

For President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 was a ‘day that will live in infamy’. For Donald Trump, it’s fertile ground for humour.

Less than five months ago, he notoriously made a joke about the Japanese assault on the Hawaii naval base while sitting beside the country’s PM Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office.

And yesterday, he decided to chip in with a quip after being asked a fairly mundane question about the US buying up yen to strengthen Japan’s currency.

He said: ‘We have a good relationship with Japan. We’re very strong – very, very strong financially, and they have a weakening yen, and they wanted a little bit of help.

‘We’re always there for Japan. Japan’s been very good for us – with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbour. They were not good.’

The President continued to answer questions from journalists on Air Force One with a subtle smile on his face.

More than 2,400 US soldiers and civilians were killed when Japan launched a surprise attack on the base on December 7, 1941.

The following day, the US declared war on Japan, resulting in them formally being drawn into the Second World War as Germany and Italy declared war in response.

It’s fair to describe that as a low point in US-Japanese relations – but that hasn’t stopped Trump bringing it up at inopportune moments.

In March, the US President was sitting beside Takaichi in his gilded White House office when he was asked why he did not warn allies in advance about his war on Iran (then less than three weeks old).

He replied: ‘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.

Leaning forward in his seat, Trump added: ‘Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?’

A quick burst of reactive chuckling quickly gave way to an excruciating silence as Takaichi shifted awkwardly in her seat.

Yesterday’s intervention on the yen marked the first time in almost 30 years that the US has made such a move to strengthen the currency.

While the yen has been struggling for a number of years, its slide has been additionally harmed by the energy crisis prompted by the war in Iran with Japan particularly reliant on imports of oil and gas from the Middle East.

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