U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday referenced Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor while discussing recent U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran during a White House meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Axar.az informs, citing NBC, when asked by a reporter why the U.S. did not inform Japan or other allies about its decision to strike Iran before carrying out the attack, the president said, “We went in very hard and didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?

“You believe in surprise, I think, much more than us,” Trump added, referencing the 1941 attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii that precipitated the United States’ entry into World War II.