Donald Trump reportedly left those in attendance stunned after cracking a joke about the attack on Pearl Harbour while appearing alongside Japan’s Prime Minister.
President Franklin Roosevelt famously described the aftermath of the 1941 strike on the US naval base as ‘a date that will live in infamy’.
During a press briefing with Japanese prime minster Sanae Takaichi, Trump was questioned about US military action and secrecy.
A Japanese journalist asked why the United States had not informed allied nations in advance about its plans to attack Iran.
Trump said the US ‘went in very hard’ and ‘didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise.’
The exchange then took an uncomfortable turn when he added: “Who knows better about surprise than Japan?”
Although the line prompted polite laughter from some US officials, the room reportedly fell quiet after his follow-up comment.
Turning toward Sanae, Trump said: “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK?”
One attendee could be heard audibly groaning, after which the room went silent.
He then returned to the original point, saying: “He’s asking me about surprise, and we did.”
Trump continued: “And because of that surprise, we knocked out … we probably knocked out 50 percent … and much more than we anticipated doing. So if I go and tell everybody about it, there’s no longer a surprise.”
The attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7 1941 saw hundreds of Japanese aircraft strike the base, leaving four US battleships sunk and four more badly damaged.
The event was a turning point that pushed the United States decisively into World War 2.
In total, more than 2,400 US military personnel and civilians were killed. It remained the deadliest attack on US soil until the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Seven of the damaged or sunken ships were later salvaged and put back into service.
However, the USS Arizona suffered a catastrophic hit when a bomb pierced into an explosives magazine, killing 1,177 sailors and marines in an instant and ripping the ship apart.
Many of those killed were never recovered, and the Arizona remains on the harbour floor today as a war grave.
Japan has never formally apologized for the surprise attack, though the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered ‘sincere and everlasting condolences’ to US and Japanese people who died in the fighting.