There are actually three things wrong with the U.S. president’s statement that the Islamic Republic of Japan attacked an American aircraft carrier.
U.S. president Donald Trump is currently in Ankara to attend a NATO summit, and among the topics he’s been asked about by reporters is the United States’ continued war with Iran, which began at the end of February and has been disrupting the global economy ever since. In justifying the protracted military operation, Trump alluded to continuing aggression on ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz, claiming that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier had been a major missile attack target. How major? To directly quote the American president:
“We had a hundred and eleven missiles shot by the Islamic Republic of Japan.”
▼ The quote in question
Now, those who don’t spend a lot of time musing about such matters might not realize that Japan is not, in fact, a republic. Because of its ceremonial emperor and parliamentary system of government, in which a prime minster is elected by members of the Diet who are themselves chosen by the people, Japan is classified as a constitutional monarchy. However, you don’t have to be a geopolitical scholar to know that Japan is not an Islamic nation, neither in terms of the religion’s prevalence within the country nor through any codification of it into Japan’s legal systems. As a matter of fact, politics in Japan tends so stay pretty separated from religion, thanks in no small part to the country’s post-World War II governmental reforms, which were spearheaded by none other than the U.S.
To be fair, Trump having a particularly pungent brain fart and mixing up “Iran” and “Japan” is a more likely explanation for the gaffe than him actually believing that Japan is an Islamic republic with both motive to start firing missiles at one of its closest allies and also the sort of long-range weapon systems to strike the Arabian Sea all the way from Japan. That said, properly articulating the name of the country you’re at war with doesn’t seem like an unreasonably high standard, nor does not referring to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was present when Trump made his “Islamic Republic of Japan” remark, as “President Putin,” the leader of Russia, the country that’s been invading Ukraine for the past four and a half years.
▼ “You have a, a question for President Putin here?” Trump asks the press, while gesturing towards Zelenskyy.
As pointed out in the videos above and below, Zelenskyy was also mistakenly called Putin by U.S. president Joe Biden, whose single presidential term came between Trump’s two, at a NATO summit in 2024.
In Japan, online reactions have, understandably, been very negative, though leaning more towards exhausted exasperation than seething anger.
“’Iran’ and ‘Japan’…well, when you think about it…they’re totally different.”
“For a second, I thought maybe their spelling is kinda similar, but their pronunciations aren’t alike at all.”
“Cognitive abilities slipping.”
“That’s a red card.”
“The People’s Republic of America is scary.”
“This has got to be a sign of senility.”
“Is senility a prerequisite to becoming president in America?”
“Three terms of senility in a row.”
“They really gotta start putting age limits on holding political office. We could use them in Japan too.”
“So is this some signal that Japan is going to be his next target?”
“Looks like Japan is next on the list.”
“Hey dude, don’t go getting confused and firing a bunch of missiles at Japan!”
“I think it’s worse that he called Zelenskyy ‘Putin.’”
“Zelenskyy: ‘It happened AGAIN?’”
“It’s pretty easy to see what Trump’s image of Japan is. That 1980s image of Japan as an adversary to the U.S. is ingrained in his brain.”
Considering Trump’s penchant for brining up Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor when speaking with Japanese prime ministers (something he did with both Shinzo Abe and current prime minister Sanae Takaichi), it does seem odd that he wouldn’t be more conscious of when he’s linguistically insinuating that there’s been a new wave of strikes from the country, but these are strange times we’re living in.
Source: YouTube/TBS NEWS DIG Powered by JNN, YouTube/日テレNEWS, YouTube/FNNプライムオンライン
Top image: Pakutaso
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