by Jacob G. Hornberger

March 24, 2026

Ironically, a few days after I posted my March 12 article “Should December 7 Continue to Be a Date That Lives in Infamy?” President Trump made a controversial comment to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Tanaichi that alluded to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, which launched America’s entry into World War II.

My article raised the question as to whether December 7 should still be considered as a “date that will live in infamy,” given that the U.S. government recently launched a sneak attack on Iran, one in which many Iranian leaders were killed.

The official U.S. narrative — one that has long been taught American schoolchildren — is that the Japanese surprise attack on U.S forces at Pearl Harbor was sneaky, immoral, low-brow, and dishonorable. What the Japanese should have done, according to this official narrative, was publicly declare war against the United States prior to initiating an attack on U.S. forces.

In a press conference with Tanaichi, Trump was asked why he hadn’t advised U.S. allies of the attack on Iran prior to it being initiated. In an interesting reveal — albeit somewhat impolitic — Trump used the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to justify the U.S. surprise attack on Iran. He stated: “Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK?”

Yet, doesn’t Trump’s answer raise the question I raised in my article: Should the official narrative on the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor now be revised, given that the U.S. government is now using it to justify its sneak attack on Iran? Keep in mind, after all, that the sneak attack on Iran was initiated without the publicly issued congressional declaration of war that is required by the U.S. Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.

Tanaichi did not respond to Trump’s point. But here is what she could have said to him:

President Trump, you know as well as I do that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was not a sneak or surprise attack. That’s because the evidence later conclusively established that U.S. officials had, unbeknownst to Japan, broken our diplomatic codes. U.S. officials were reading our diplomatic messages leading up the attack on Pearl Harbor. Therefore, there is no way that President Roosevelt and U.S. military officials were surprised about our attack.

Equally important, as you also well know, Roosevelt wanted Japanese to attack U.S. forces. He knew that the American people were overwhelmingly opposed to entry into World War II, especially given the disastrous consequences of U.S. interventionism into World War I, which ultimately gave rise to the total defeat of Germany, the harsh and unjust Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Hitler, and World War II.

As you also know, this was a period of time in which U.S. presidents were still complying with your constitutional provision requiring a congressional declaration of war. Roosevelt knew that given the overwhelming opposition among the American people to entry into the war, he would never be able to secure a congressional declaration of war.

But as you also know, Roosevelt wanted fiercely to embroil America in the conflict, notwithstanding his false campaign promises in the 1940 presidential election to keep America out of the war.

Thus, as you also know, Roosevelt concocted a plan to provoke Japan into attacking the United States so that he could exclaim, “We’ve been attacked! It’s a complete surprise! I had no idea that this was going to happen! We now have no choice but to defend ourselves against this sneak attack! Now, give me my congressional declaration of war!”

As you also know, President Trump, that is what Roosevelt’s oil embargo on Japan, which is quite similar to your oil embargo on Venezuela and Cuba, was all about. Knowing that Japan’s army in China was dependent on oil, Roosevelt did his best to prevent Japan from acquiring oil, in the hope that Japan would attack the United States in an effort to break free of his oil embargo.

That is what the attack on Pearl Harbor was all about — not an effort to conquer and take control over the United States, which would have been impossible militarily, but rather simply an attempt to knock out America’s Pacific fleet in order to give Japan a way to secure oil in the Dutch East Indies without U.S. interference.

In other words, Roosevelt’s plan worked masterfully. As you no doubt know, he was quite clever to remove his aircraft carriers from Pearl Harbor before the attack.

So, given Roosevelt’s effort to lure Japan into attacking the U.S., the Japanese attack was actually no surprise, as you suggest.

Finally, I have some questions for you: Why didn’t U.S. officials give Japan warning of their nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? That would have enabled little girls and little boys, seniors, women, and other civilians time to exit those cities without being incinerated by those atomic bombs. Indeed, warning or no warning, why did U.S. officials even target civilians with such a vicious military attack? Weren’t those nuclear attacks on civilians a very grave war crime?