I love how the Japanese Prime Minister looks bored and looks at her watch just before Trump takes this one last question and surprises her with his bon mot about the element of surprise.

This is one for the ages:

Trump calls on a male reporter and disarms him with compliments: "Let me pick a beautiful looking person, a beautiful person from Japan.... Oh, he doesn't believe he's beautiful. Oh, he's just — he sounded shy."

The reporter asks: "Why didn't you tell US allies in Europe and Asia like Japan about the war before attacking Iran?"

Trump: "Well, one thing you don't want to signal too much, you know, when we go in, we went in very hard and we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay. Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Okay. Right.... Don't you believe in surprise? I think much more so than us.... And because of that surprise, we knocked out the first two days, we probably knocked out 50% of what we and much more than we anticipated doing. So, if I go and tell everybody about it, there's no longer a surprise, right?"

There's a difference between surprising the enemy and surprising your allies. But the point seems to be that surprising the enemy will fail if too many allies and supposed allies are in on the plan. Also the specifics of the attack could be kept secret while the decision to go to war is shared. 

ADDED: Trump was actually complimenting Japan.

"The weekly gatherings of knitters at Needle & Skein, a yarn store in Minneapolis, are typically filled with giggles and storytelling."

"But, earlier this month, a heaviness hung in the air. 'It was just collective exhaustion,' said Paul Neary, a shop employee. 'Minnesotans — we're not going to say the big thing, but we often know what the big thing is just by looking at each other.'... They pulled out their knitting needles and got to work. Neary created the pattern that has now become the well-known 'Melt the ICE' hat, a red beanie-shaped cap topped with a braided tassel.... As a history buff, Neary chose the pattern based on a Norwegian hat used to protest the Nazi occupation of Norway in the 1940s. The hats were called 'nisselue,' which roughly translates to Santa hat...."

From "A red hat, inspired by a symbol of resistance to Nazi occupation, gains traction in Minnesota" (NPR).

"Peter Fritzsche, a history professor at the University of Illinois, said the Nazis were operating on 'obviously a very, very different scale,' but with ICE's presence in Minnesota, people can still feel 'occupied.'... Wendy Woloson, a history professor at Rutgers University at Camden and fellow knitter, said the red hats are a classic response of the crafting world. When knitters want to help in their community, they put their hands to work, she said.... She recalled the pink 'pussy hats' from the 2017 Women's March...."

It's poignant, this urge to do something that finds its release in knitting. It's something very calm indoor people can do when they want to feel they too are engaging in activism. 

ADDED: Speaking of hats in Minnesota, I just ran across this fascinating passage in a NYT article from April 2025:

"The U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants. I have a very hard time seeing that the U.S. couldn’t get pretty much everything it wanted if it just asked nicely."

Said Mikkel Runge Olesen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen, quoted in "Trump Administration Live Updates: Rubio Says President Wants to Buy Greenland" (NYT).

Under a little-known Cold War agreement, the United States already enjoys sweeping military access in Greenland... allow[ing] it to “construct, install, maintain, and operate” military bases across Greenland, “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft.” It was signed in 1951 by the United States and Denmark, which colonized Greenland more than 300 years ago and still controls some of its affairs.... 

So it's essentially already ours? But Rubio told Congress yesterday that Trump wants to buy Greenland.  Olesen told the NYT that "Greenland does not want to be bought by anyone — especially not the United States." Presuming that this Olesen knows what Greenland wants, I'd still regard that as a bargaining position. And they are bargaining with Trump. We'll see what happens.

"The recurring anti-war messaging that pops up throughout the display, particularly in his scratchy drawings, is both a Japanese artistic trope — think Yoko Ono..."

"... and an unstated recognition of something we forget too easily in the West: that we dropped two atom bombs on Japan to fast-forward the end of the Second World War, and that this racist assault would never have been inflicted on a European nation. What we have here is kids v annihilation."

I'm reading "Drawing like a kid isn’t child’s play — but does it deserve an exhibition?/Picasso and Miró prized naivety and there’s more to the infantile cartoons of Yoshitomo Nara at the Hayward Gallery than meets the eye" (London Times). 

I was surprised at "this racist assault would never have been inflicted on a European nation." "Never" is a strong word. The war with Germany was over by the time the atom bomb was ready, but we had other bombs and we used them very harshly against the Germans. We used dehumanizing stereotypes against the Japanese and also against the Germans. I'm disgusted to see "this racist assault would never have been inflicted on a European nation" in the London Times.

The Times art critic is Waldemar Januszczak, who was born in England to parents who were Polish refugees of WWII. 

Here's the Yoshitomo Nara art:

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"The Podcaster Asking You to Side With History’s Villains/Darryl Cooper is no scholar. But legions of fans — many on the right — can’t seem to resist what he presents as hidden truths."

A long NYT article. Free-access link: here.

I don't listen to Cooper's podcast, but I heard a lot about it on the recent Joe Rogan podcast — this one — with Dave Smith and Douglas Murray. Snippet:

SMITH: Darryl is incredibly knowledgeable.

MURRAY: He's not, he's, he's not... when he was offered to debate the current greatest living biographer of Churchill, he said, I can't because he knows much more than me and I admire his work and I've learned from it, but I can't possibly debate him....

ROGAN: Right. But you don't have to be able to debate people to have opinions on things....  That's not your thing.

I always had a complicated relationship with the United States, which was far from perfect, but the U.S. was always the shining city on the hill."

"But now. we’ve lost not only the power that protected us, but also the guiding star in the sky."

Joschka Fischer, identified by the NYT as "a former foreign minister, radical leftist in his younger days and now a Green party stalwart."

He's quoted in "In Germany, ‘Orphaned’ by U.S., Shock Gives Way to Action/No country in Europe is as much a product of enlightened postwar American diplomacy. Now adrift, it has begun to reckon with a new world."

Who said "orphaned"? Who viewed Germany as America's child?

"I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia."

"We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects. We both reflected on the Great History of our Nations, and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II, remembering, that Russia lost tens of millions of people, and we, likewise, lost so many! We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine. President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, 'COMMON SENSE.'"

Writes President Trump, on Truth Social.

"I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin..."

"... and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process. All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a 'deal,' and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way - and the easy way is always better. It’s time to 'MAKE A DEAL.' NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!"

Writes President Trump, at Truth Social.

That made me want to quote this passage from Trump's inaugural address:

"They’re all infesting the Cotswolds. F*** them. They’re not resilient … They had every advantage of state power. They had the high ground."

"And guess what, we broke them and now they’re whining like little children...."

Said Steve Bannon, from his house in Arizona, referring to Ellen DeGeneres and others who are relocated, out of fear of the Trump administration.

Quoted by Louise Callaghan in "Steve Bannon: Maga can rule for 50 years and Farage will be PM/For the firebrand Trump guru, beating ‘whining’ Democrats was just the beginning — at home and abroad" (London Times).

“We are so close,” he tells me. “We just need to see this through.” Trump may have won the presidency, but to enact the sweeping changes he wants to make — chief among them destroying the administrative state and deporting millions of undocumented migrants — he needs to move fast, with the support of his party.

"The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a grass-roots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

"The survivors 'help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,' Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said during his announcement on Friday. Mr. Frydnes added that 'extraordinary efforts' by survivors of the U.S. nuclear attack in Japan, including those who are part of Nihon Hidankyo, 'have contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo.' That, he said, had led to a world in which no weapons of that type had been used in war in 80 years."

The NYT reports.

In France, Biden rhapsodized about 'the story of America' told by the rows of graves at the Normandy America Cemetery: 'Nearly 10,000 heroes buried side-by-side...'"

"'... officers and enlisted, immigrants and native-born, different races, different faiths, but all Americans.' In Phoenix, Trump, invoked the racist 'great replacement' conspiracy theory, saying Biden had orchestrated an 'invasion' at the border as part of 'a deliberate demolition of our sovereignty' because “they probably think these people are going to be voting.... Trump... complained about 'endless wars' and 'delinquent' Europeans, and vowed to 'spend our money in our country' — including by 'moving thousands of troops, if necessary, currently stationed overseas to our own borders.'... Will Americans recognize their country in the dark and desperate portrait Trump painted? 'Our country is falling to pieces,' he said, and if he isn’t returned to power, 'the country is finished ... You won’t have a country anymore.' Trump described a nation full of 'crooked people' and serving as 'a dumping ground for the dungeons of the Third World.'"

WaPo opinion-writer Dana Milbank endeavors to frame the candidates, in "As Biden rallies the free world, Trump serves a higher cause: Himself/In Phoenix, at his first post-conviction campaign rally, Trump portrayed a dark and desperate America" (WaPo).

Milbank's writing is so heavy-handed, but it must please some readers, perhaps readers who want to believe Biden is a good-enough candidate. He rhapsodized about a story told by the rows of graves, while Trump complained of endless wars.

"In their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty. Now the question for us is, in our hour of trial, will we do ours?"

Said President Biden, quoted in "Biden, world leaders and veterans mark D-Day’s 80th anniversary in France/While the U.S. president’s speech was directed at a global audience, it comes against the backdrop of a fierce domestic political battle with his predecessor, Donald Trump" (WaP0).

Biden did not name Trump during his remarks, but he offered an unequivocal endorsement of the global order that the Republican front-runner has trashed, asserting that NATO and other alliances “make us strong.”... “Make no mistake, the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine; to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked,” he said. “We cannot let that happen. To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable.”... 

Biden has pointed to his administration’s record of building alliances amid the war in Ukraine as a top selling point for his reelection as he seeks to draw a sharp contrast with Trump. In an interview with Time magazine, Biden said Trump “wanted to just abandon” U.S. alliances, and suggested that the former president would ultimately pull the country out of NATO if he returns to the White House.... 

"They’re spread from south-east Asia to the Korean peninsula and Europe. What is [Biden] implying? All 79,000 that were never found were eaten?"

Said Michael Kabuni, a lecturer in political science at the University of Papua New Guinea, quoted in "'Lost for words’: Joe Biden’s tale about cannibals bemuses Papua New Guinea residents/President’s suggestion that his ‘Uncle Bosie’ was eaten by cannibals harms US efforts to build Pacific ties, say local experts" (The Guardian).

79,000 U.S. soldiers were never accounted for after World War II.

"Did Biden's VA Ban Iconic 'V-J Day in Times Square' Photo?/Screen grabs show a genuine Veterans Affairs memorandum, but officials say it was sent in error."

An intriguing headline at Snopes.

The since-rescinded memo, sent from the VA Office of the Assistant Under Secretary of Health for Operations, stated that photo should be removed on the grounds that it depicted a non-consensual kiss: 

Putin: "the Poles overplayed their hand and forced Hitler to start World War II with them."

I at first thought this must be a mistranslation. But after watching video, I can confirm Putin really said it (I am native speaker of Russian): “the Poles overplayed their hand and forced Hitler to start World War II with them.” https://t.co/K0XSWPMwA8

— Ilya Somin (@IlyaSomin) February 9, 2024

"Meeting with President Biden for the first time in a year, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, reiterated his determination to unify with Taiwan..."

"... but stopped short of mentioning the potential use of force. He denounced what he called futile American efforts at containing China, but also acknowledged that U.S. tech restrictions had taken a toll. And he broadcast that China had global ambitions for its influence — while also trying to reassure the world that those ambitions did not have to lead to conflict with the United States...."

 From "In Talks With Biden, Xi Seeks to Assure and Assert at the Same Time/China’s depiction of Xi Jinping’s U.S. visit reflected his sometimes-contradictory priorities: to project both strength and a willingness to engage with Washington" (NYT).

"Mr. Xi also struck a softer tone than usual at the banquet dinner with American business leaders.... Mr. Xi spoke about the American pilots known as the Flying Tigers who aided China during World War II against Japan. He hinted at the prospect of China’s sending new pandas to the United States. And he reminisced about the time he lived with an American family in Iowa in 1985 as part of an agricultural exchange...."

I didn't even notice him the first time.

But, okay, Al Bowlly it is. 

Bowlly ≈ like a bowl. (The song is "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries.")

Life story, here, at Wikipedia:

"In 1942, Vogue quoted a male soldier saying of his female counterparts, 'To look unattractive these days is downright 'morale-breaking and should be considered treason.'"

"The next year, that magazine carried an ad naming women in uniform the 'Best Dressed Women in the World Today.' The government asked Elizabeth Arden to concoct a lipstick to match the red piping on women’s Marine Corps uniforms. Women marines were issued this Montezuma Red lipstick and matching nail polish in their official military kits. (It remained mandatory for thirty more years.) A Tangee cosmetics ad from the era reasoned, 'No lipstick—ours or anyone else’s—will win the war. But it symbolizes one of the reasons we are fighting . . . the precious right of women to be feminine and lovely, under any circumstances.'"

 
Writes Patricia Marx, in "Is the Army’s New Tactical Bra Ready for Deployment? It’s fire-resistant but not bulletproof, and was developed with help from eighteen thousand female soldiers" (The New Yorker).

"Is this a bad time to point out that 'moving to San Francisco in the 1940s' almost certainly means being part of the wave of black arrivals who took cheap houses from the Japanese people..."

"... who had been deported to quickly convert Japantown into the Western Addition and Fillmore? Are those black families going to pass those reparations on to the Japanese families they dispossessed?"

That's the top-rated comment on the NYT article "Can Reparations Bring Black Residents Back to San Francisco? San Francisco has proposed the nation’s most ambitious reparations plan, including $5 million cash payments and housing aid that aims to bring people back."

"Unlike Germany, which was clearly on the wrong side of history and made facing and remembering its Nazi past a national project woven inextricably into the postwar fabric..."

"... of its institutions and society, Italy had one foot on each side, and so had a claim to victimization by Fascism, having switched allegiances during the war. After Rome fell to the Allies, a civil war raged between the resistance and a Nazi puppet state of Mussolini loyalists in the north. When the war ended, Italy adopted an explicitly antifascist Constitution, but the political emphasis was on ensuring national cohesion in a country that had succeeded in unifying only a century earlier. There was a belief, the Italian writer Umberto Eco wrote in his classic 1995 essay 'Ur Fascism,' or 'Eternal Fascism,' that the 'memory of those terrible years should be repressed.' But repression 'causes neurosis,' he argued.... [Now, Giorgia] Meloni is poised to take charge. Her proposals, characterized by protectionism, tough-on-crime measures and protecting the traditional family, have a continuity with the post-Fascist parties, though updated to excoriate L.G.B.T. 'lobbies' and migrants.... [T]he left sees in her crescendoing rhetoric, cult of personality style and hard-right positions many of the hallmarks of an ideology that Eco famously sought to pin down despite Fascism’s 'fuzziness.' She evinces what Eco called an 'obsession with a plot, possibly an international one' against Italians, which she expresses in fears of international bankers using mass migration to replace native Italians and weaken Italian workers....."

From "Italian Voters Appear Ready to Turn a Page for Europe/With the hard-right candidate Giorgia Meloni ahead before Sunday’s election, Italy could get its first leader whose party traces its roots to the wreckage of Fascism" (NYT).