Did Biden say that in World War II the US and Japan fought for common values?

In April 2024, a statement by the American president, allegedly made during an event with the participation of the Japanese prime minister, circulated on Telegram channels. We have verified the accuracy of these publications.

On April 11, a short video began circulating on Telegram in which US President Joe Biden allegedly said: “We are the same - Japan and the United States. We may be separated by distance, but generation after generation we have fought together for common hopes and common values.” At this time, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is standing nearby. Judging by the setting and clothing of the politicians, the video captured some kind of ceremonial reception.

Numerous Telegram channels saw hypocrisy, or at least forgetfulness of the American leader, in this statement by Biden. “Joe Biden couldn’t make a toast without a cheat sheet and said that during World War II the United States and Japan “fought for common values”,” wrote Truthfulness channel (177,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). "Evil proof️"(180,000) commented on the video like this: “Grandfather Beadon explained to the squinting sushi lover that the USA and Japan have been fighting together for many generations for common ideals, and for some reason evil Putin bombed Pearl Harbor, and then dropped two nuclear bombs on Japanese cities.” Authors of many other channels, for example "Newsach / Dvach"(206,000), "Solovyov"(200,000), "Putin on Telegram" (185,000) and "Uncle Slava“(180,000), although they expressed themselves more vaguely, still accused the US President of “forgetting whose side Japan was on in World War II.” Biden's statement was also quoted on air on the TV channel "Russia 1" “And you can’t argue: both in Pearl Harbor and during the battle for Iwo Jima, the Americans and the Japanese really couldn’t have done without each other,” the author of the story emphasized.

April 8, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived to Washington for a week-long state visit. By messages Media, the agenda of the visit included a discussion of about 70 issues, including strengthening defense ties between the United States and Japan against the backdrop of the rise of China. April 10 at the White House took place a gala dinner hosted by Biden in honor of Kishida's visit.

It was at this reception that a video was shot, a fragment of which was distributed across Telegram channels. A full recording of the toasts with which the US President and his guest opened the gala event was published by the TV channel C-SPAN and the magazine's YouTube channel Forbes. Excerpts of the broadcast also shared Associated Press agency. Full text The toast delivered by Biden can be found on the official website of the US White House.

Judging by these sources, what the US President said that evening differed from the quote attributed to him in Russian-language media. Biden said verbatim: “We are the same - Japan and the United States. We may be separated by distance, but from generation to generation we are united by the same hopes, the same values.” In the presentation of Telegram channels, the words “we are united” turned into “we fought together.” Most likely, the bloggers misheard what was said and confused two English phrases: “we are brought together” and “we fought together.” It is significant that American and English speaking Japanese The media did not make such a mistake.

With reflections on the similarities between the United States and Japan, the American leader summed up the personal story that told at the beginning of the toast: “A few days after my inauguration, more than three years ago, I received a large shiny red and blue envelope covered in sticky notes. Inside were letters from Japanese schoolchildren who stuttered, just as I did when I was a child. When the teacher told her class that I also suffered from a stutter as a child, the children beamed, smiled and said: “We are the same.” Well, we really are the same – Japan and the USA.”

In his speech, Biden did not say that the United States and Japan fought together in World War II. On the contrary, he recalled several times that the two countries were once “sworn enemies” and that friendship between them replaced “the destructive enmity that reigned before.” In a response toast, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida confirmed that the countries had come a long way, which led to “unshakable” friendship.

USA and Japan installed stable trade and diplomatic relations in the mid-19th century during the Meiji Restoration refused from the policy of isolation and became open to the world. In World War I, Washington and Tokyo were allies and supported the Entente. Relations became strained in 1931 due to invasion Japan to Manchuria, and nine years later the power of the Asian country concluded military-political alliance with Nazi Germany and Italy under the leadership of Mussolini. In World War II, the United States and Japan were direct military adversaries and fought against each other. In 1951, Tokyo signed Treaty of San Francisco and adopted the so-called Yoshida Doctrine (named after the Prime Minister of Japan in 1946–1954), according to which Japan was an ally of the United States in the Cold War. In the following decades, the countries actively cooperated in various fields, and reconciliation was symbolically reinforced at the highest level through state visits. In 2016, Barack Obama became the first American president to visit Hiroshima, destroyed by nuclear bombing, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the American port of Pearl Harbor, after the attack on which the United States entered World War II. “The visit of the two leaders demonstrates the power of reconciliation that has turned former adversaries into close allies,” wrote then the White House.

The earliest “Verified” publication found, which misquoted and misinterpreted Biden’s words, appeared in the Telegram channel “Tucker Carlson in Russian and others» April 11 at 04:43 Moscow time (14,000 views). In the caption to the video, the author used the erroneous translation “fought together for common hopes and common values” and added on his own: “Especially in the Second World War...” Three minutes later, the channel “Ne.Sugar Live” (18,000 views) posted the same video with the comment: “Old Joe forgot to take his pills again and embarrassed himself - he couldn’t make a toast without a cheat sheet and forgot which side Japan fought on in World War II.” The quote was even more distorted in the channel’s publication that appeared an hour later “Voice of Mordor" (56,000): "Joe Biden said that during World War II, the United States and Japan "fought for common values." However, most channels copied the text from the post that appeared in the Telegram channel “News"(34,000 views) at 09:01. It said: "Joe Biden couldn't make a toast without a cheat sheet and said that during World War II the US and Japan 'fought for common values.'" It was this formulation that appeared, for example, in the publications of the channels “Solovyov" And "Putin on Telegram"

So Biden wasn't saying that the US and Japan fought together for anything. He used the phrase “we were brought together” rather than “we fought together”. Many Telegram channels that distributed the video not only provided the wrong translation, but also made up the quote, claiming that Biden at that moment was talking directly about World War II.

Cover photo: C-SPAN

Not true

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