President Donald Trump on Thursday, seated next to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office, compared the first U.S. strikes against Iran to Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.

“Making such a remark to justify a sneak attack and boast about its outcome is a piece of nonsense that ignores lessons from history."

WASHINGTON — President Trump defended his decision not to give Japan advance warning of his attack on Iran — citing Tokyo’s 1941 surprise raid that killed 2,403 Americans at Pearl Harbor. “We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise,

Trump jokingly referred to the initial strikes on Iran to the attack on Pearl Harbor while seated next to Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Not the Civil War — that was the bloodiest, 620,000 dead, with Americans falling on both sides. That ended three days shy of exactly four years. Not World War II — four months shorter. Not the Vietnam War.

"We didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan?" the president responded while sitting next to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Gas prices hit an average of $3.89 a gallon nationwide and global oil prices surged after Israel attacked a critical Iranian natural gas field.

The United States and Iran threatened to target critical infrastructure Sunday as the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk throughout the region. Iran said the Strait of Hormuz,