“Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Ok, why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”
“You believe in surprise, much more so than us.”
Remind me who lost that war? I don’t think it was the ones that launched the surprise attack…
Because of course he did.
The stupidity is genuine.
Yeah, Trump really dropped a bomb on Japan, twice.
How is this a joke? Am I the only one that doesn’t get Trump’s “jokes”? To me it just looks like a demented idiot with a foot in his mouth
All of right wing humor is just verbally shitting on someone/group of people. There’s never a punchline. It’s just cruel, which they find amusing.
Yeah he doesn’t joke.
George Bush threw up on their prime minister and this is far, far worse.
That is new to me too.
Holy fuck which Bush? Is there video of it?
The first one. The second choked on a pretzel but he wasn’t with other county leaders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush_vomiting_incident
International conservative relations.
Once again he missed the basics
Japan is a country known for its rich cultural traditions and customs, including the importance of showing respect in all aspects of daily life. Respect is a fundamental value in Japanese society, and understanding how to show respect is essential for navigating social interactions and building positive relationships with others
They’re also not idiots, and they understand when they’re interacting with someone from a another country that their counterpart isn’t always going to follow their local social norms. They also know Trump is a buffoon. I doubt anyone Japanese was truly insulted; all US citizens should be embarrassed though.
Not only is this… perhaps one of the most insulting things you could possibly say, so insulting that … basically every extremely formally well-mannered Japanese politician or attache in that room actually completely lost their composure…
Why Donald, WHY WAS IT that Japan did a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor?
Was it maybe because, I don’t fucking know… they didn’t have sufficient access to oil resources?!
I want to beat Trump to death with a phone book.
God fucking damnit.
… This unimaginable shitstain needs to be fed his own teeth, through his nose.
I’ve met an ex-Yakuza once.
Had an interesting night at a bar once, we bonded over martial arts.
… I can only imagine his reaction to this.
Wait wait I thought I was the only person on here who knew about the oil embargo
No I remembered. It’ll be really funny if it turns out America’s oil-motivated sneak attack is how the giant ultimately goes back to sleep. I could see this disaster unfolding with the winding down of the military industrial complex following a massive economic collapse and the loss of status as world reserve currency, so it’s not the silliest hypothetical I can cook up.
“Showing respect in all aspects of daily life” sounds like a bit of orientalism. People aren’t exactly bowing to each other when they pick up a beer from a convenience store.
… that actually happens. Cashiers at Konbini do bow. Not every cashiers, not every Konbini, but more than you’d expect. Plus, they verbally welcome you to the store and say good bye when you exit. It’s reflexive over there.
You usually get the welcoming phrases, but that’s not unique to Japan. The goodbye phrase is less common I think, to the point where I’m not sure which one you’re talking about–maybe “mata yoroshiku onegaishimasu”? Bows aren’t super common either, or it could be because I live in the countryside. Maybe they’re more polite in Tokyo or something.
On an overall average I’d agree that society operates on a more considerate level, like you’d never have someone playing music on their phone on the train or something like that. So maybe it’s just the phrasing that bothered me. “Respect (how much?) in ALL aspects of daily (down to the most mundane) life” just makes it sound like “honorable citizens would never dream of showing an ounce of dishonor!”
Its really not, if you’re broadly comparing Japanese culture to American culture.
I was a karateka for over a decade, met a fair number of Japanese people, Japanese karatekas.
Even the Japanese karatekas, who are… largely considered to be more rude and care less about politeness, be more brash than the typical Japanese non karateka… they were generally much more polite, less crass, more likely to avoid an unintentional insult, and be very embarassed than the American karatekas I knew, than the typical American.
Like I actually remember a Japanese karateka explaining to me the difference between … what kinds of situations call for a 15-30 degree bow, a 30-45 degree bow, and basically a 90 degree bow.
There is a literal physical language and ettiquette to showing the proper amount of respect: If you do a very deep bow for something that only calls for a minor one, you’re basicslly acting like a kiss-ass, being overly dramatic. If you do a minor bow for a situation that calls for a deep bow, you’re being flippant, insulting, not taking things seriously.
The only exception to that pattern I’ve personally experienced was when, years later, I happened across an apparent ex-Yakuza at a bar.
Yeah. Yeah that guy was significantly less well-mannered lol.
But also extremely skilled at martial arts.
Yeah, talking cultures broadly I agree, but the phrasing of how respect permeates “all aspects of daily life” sticks in my craw.
There is a literal physical language and ettiquette to showing the proper amount of respect: If you do a very deep bow for something that only calls for a minor one, you’re basicslly acting like a kiss-ass, being overly dramatic. If you do a minor bow for a situation that calls for a deep bow, you’re being flippant, insulting, not taking things seriously.
This isn’t really unique to Japan, except maybe for the fact that it manifests itself as a bow. If you owe someone a really big apology and you say “Yeah, oops” you’ll come off as flippant. If you minorly inconvenience someone and you say “I’m so deeply sorry for the grave harm I’ve done to you!” you sound insincere.
I mean, my point in saying its a literal physical form of etiquette that is systemitized is to … differentiate it from many other cultures, where its mostly just linguistic.
Not too many other cultures have a whole system of physical manuevers that also comprise part of how respect is culturally conveyed.
Microexpressions? Nah, this is a macroexpression.
Tons of broader Japanese culture also has systemitized, physical rituals… essentially, complex dances, that either accompany or just literally are an actual ancient tradition.
There is an extreme amount of emphasis on physical control of your own body, compared to other cultures I have interacted with, have studied.
Of course, not everyone takes all of that so seriously, is so formal… culture changes over time and is never totally homogenous… Japan is also rather famous for its extremely expressive and distinctive fashion/lifestyle sub cultures.
There is differentiation, but its… its sort of like the Overton window for etiquette is in a significantly different position as for many other cultures, if that makes sense.
Wouldn’t it be worse if they made a Perl harbor joke?
Or if Trump made a Hiroshima joke?
The question he was answering was “why didn’t you tell your allies (like Japan) before attacking Iran?”
So his sarcastic answer of “why didn’t you tell the US before attacking us in WWII?” is dumb, tone deaf, and offensive.
Dumb because Japan and the US were enemies when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor… so why tf would the tell us beforehand? The question was “Why didn’t you tell your allies you were going to attack Iran,” not “Why didn’t you tell Iran you were going to attack Iran?”.
Tone deaf because he’s trying to making a joke in response to a serious question about war, and bringing up a sensitive topic between our two countries.
And offensive because he’s making it sound like Japan were the only ones who did awful things when we fought in WWII. Hot take probably, but the US did far more heinous things to Japan in WWII than they did to the US.
OK but also China.
You mean like dropping nukes on cities?
Thanks for the clarification. I was legit confused on context which is on brand for the current regime.
I know you’re not deliberately minimizing the atrocities Japan committed back then…
*sighs, wearily reaches for megaphone*
. . . HE’S DEMENTED
And not in the colloquial sense.
He’s literally suffering from cognitive decline. Possibly full on dementia.Definitely dementia.
It’s so embarrassing living through these administrations.
The sound the press pool makes when he says it makes me want to curl into a ball. I don’t get how the cringe people feel about this doesnt make them just need to stop.
Imagine, you’re a conservative PM, self described Iron Lady, meeting your ideological ally and he says something so insanely offensive and stupid, you change your whole worldview for the better.
I can dream, but we know she already knows whose company she’s in and she’s secretly fine with it as long as the world order shifts right.
She is definitely some sort of undead ghoul, right?
In terms of diplomatic faux paux, this is certainly up there.
We’re dealing with fascist secret police kidnapping legal citizens, starting a war to distract from a global network of pedophiles, and government agencies in the process of creating legal mandates to spy on every human on the planet if they can.
We’re well beyond social faux paux.
*faux-pas
I was half expecting for him to end with remarks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as other examples of surprises.
This is just his way of being a “breath of fresh air”. You know, compared to all those other stuffy politicians that “act like adults”.
Man this guy is just too much.
