From Newsgroup: soc.history.what-if

On Tuesday, August 6, 2019 at 4:22:20 PM UTC-4, dump...@hotmail.com wrote:

What If, in World War II, Japan Got the Atomic Bomb First? A
controversial book
about JapanrCOs race to build an atomic weapon in 1945 is published there for the
first time. It also raises questions about how North Korea finally got a bomb.:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-world-war-ii-what-if-japan-got-the-atomic-bomb-first?ref=home

Quote:

"After the war ended, intelligence officials learned that the Japanese military,
just prior to their surrender, had actually developed and successfully
test-
fired an atomic device. The project had been housed in or near Konan (the Japanese name for Hungnam), on the coast in the northern part of the peninsula.

To make matters worse, by the end of 1945 the SovietsrCowho did not yet have an
atomic bombrCohad occupied much of Korea north of the 38th parallel and the plant
where the Japanese atom bomb had been developed was under their control."

Sounds like BS, anyone out there know more about the Japanese A-Bomb
program?

From all I've heard, it never got far beyond the drawing board:

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-bomb-20150805-story.html

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/new-documents-found-pointing-to-japanese-atomic-bomb-pr-1722338915



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From Newsgroup: soc.history.what-if

On Wed, 7 Aug 2019 17:20:38 -0500, Byker wrote:

On Tuesday, August 6, 2019 at 4:22:20 PM UTC-4, dump...@hotmail.com wrote:

What If, in World War II, Japan Got the Atomic Bomb First? A
controversial book
about Japanias race to build an atomic weapon in 1945 is published there >>> for the
first time. It also raises questions about how North Korea finally got a >>> bomb.:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-world-war-ii-what-if-japan-got-the-atomic-bomb-first?ref=home

Quote:

"After the war ended, intelligence officials learned that the Japanese
military,
just prior to their surrender, had actually developed and successfully
test-
fired an atomic device. The project had been housed in or near Konan (the
Japanese name for Hungnam), on the coast in the northern part of the
peninsula.

To make matters worse, by the end of 1945 the SovietsiXwho did not yet have >> an
atomic bombiXhad occupied much of Korea north of the 38th parallel and the >> plant
where the Japanese atom bomb had been developed was under their control."


Sounds like BS, anyone out there know more about the Japanese A-Bomb
program?

From all I've heard, it never got far beyond the drawing board:

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-bomb-20150805-story.html

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/new-documents-found-pointing-to-japanese-atomic-bomb-pr-1722338915

There is nothing new here.
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From Newsgroup: soc.history.what-if

On 8/7/2019 3:20 PM, Byker wrote:

On Tuesday, August 6, 2019 at 4:22:20 PM UTC-4, dump...@hotmail.com wrote:

What If, in World War II, Japan Got the Atomic Bomb First?-a A
controversial book
about JapanrCOs race to build an atomic weapon in 1945 is published there >> > for the
first time. It also raises questions about how North Korea finally

got a

bomb.:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-world-war-ii-what-if-japan-got-the-atomic-bomb-first?ref=home

Quote:

"After the war ended, intelligence officials learned that the Japanese
military,
just prior to their surrender, had actually developed and successfully
test-
fired an atomic device. The project had been housed in or near Konan (the
Japanese name for Hungnam), on the coast in the northern part of the
peninsula.

To make matters worse, by the end of 1945 the SovietsrCowho did not yet
have
an
atomic bombrCohad occupied much of Korea north of the 38th parallel and the >> plant
where the Japanese atom bomb had been developed was under their control."

Sounds like BS, anyone out there know more about the Japanese A-Bomb
program?

From all I've heard, it never got far beyond the drawing board:

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-bomb-20150805-story.html

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/new-documents-found-pointing-to-japanese-atomic-bomb-pr-1722338915

There is NO evidence of any test firing of a device.
All that is sensationalized distortions.

Japan did have a fairly serious effort, but in terms of
what was needed to succeed, very tiny project.
This wiki seems fair and accurate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nuclear_weapon_program
I will cut & past one section,
" Lieutenant-General Takeo Yasuda on a train. Yasuda was at the
time director of the Army Aeronautical Department's Technical
Research Institute. Nishina told Yasuda about the possibility
of building nuclear weapons.[10] However, the Japanese fission
project did not formally begin until April 1941 when Yasuda acted
on Army Minister Hideki T+ij+i's order to investigate the possibilities
of nuclear weapons. Yasuda passed the order down the chain of command
to Viscount Masatoshi +ik+ichi, director of the RIKEN Institute, who
in turn passed it to Nishina, whose Nuclear Research Laboratory by
1941 had over 100 researchers.[11]
Meanwhile, the Imperial Japanese Navy's Technology Research
Institute had been pursuing its own separate investigations,
and had engaged professors from the Imperial University, Tokyo,
for advice on nuclear weapons. This resulted in the formation of
the Committee on Research in the Application of Nuclear Physics,
chaired by Nishina, that met ten times between July 1942 and March
1943. It concluded in a report that while an atomic bomb was, in
principle, feasible, "it would probably be difficult even for the
United States to realize the application of atomic power during
the war". This caused the Navy to lose interest and to concentrate
instead on research into radar.[11]"

It was really very far beyond their industrial capacity.
But they, the Army, pushed on with a small project, but
that was destroyed in March 1945 Tokyo firebombing.
But it was because of their own research, they were quick
to understand what had happened at Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.
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From Newsgroup: soc.history.what-if

"Byker" <byker@do~rag.net> wrote:

"After the war ended, intelligence officials learned that the Japanese military, just prior to their surrender, had actually developed and successfully
test-fired an atomic device."

Sounds like BS, anyone out there know more about the Japanese A-Bomb program?

From all I've heard, it never got far beyond the drawing board:

Quite so. The US built the Bomb, but it took enormous industrial
resources which Japan didn't have, plus an array of geniuses in
the field: Fermi, Szilard, von Neumann, many others. We had the
best in the US, plus a large contingent from Britain. _And_ experts
who had defected from Axis countries: notably Fermi, of course,
but also for instance Klaus Fuchs. (Fuchs was a Communist spy, but
it was later noted that "compartmentalization" would not have kept
him from the most important secrets, because he would have been in
the most important "compartment" due to his brilliance.) Japan had
a few bright chaps, but nothing like this.

The article suggests that the Japanese facility was looted by the
Soviets, which is nonsense. If the Soviets captured a plant where
Japan had built a working Bomb, why did it take them three years to
build another Bomb? Why was there _nothing_ in the records of the
Soviet Bomb project, or in the recollections of those who worked
on it, about information gained from Japan? (And a great deal of
information about the Soviet project has been disclosed.)

No, it's just lurid "fake history".
--
Nous sommes dans une pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerdos.
--- General Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot at Sedan, 1870.
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From Newsgroup: soc.history.what-if

On Wed, 7 Aug 2019 17:20:38 -0500, "Byker" <byker@do~rag.net> wrote:

Sounds like BS, anyone out there know more about the Japanese A-Bomb
program?

From all I've heard, it never got far beyond the drawing board:

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-bomb-20150805-story.html

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/new-documents-found-pointing-to-japanese-atomic-bomb-pr-1722338915

Several countries had worked out the science of an atomic bomb by 1945
(Just for starters for the Allies: USA, UK, Canada - yes!, USSR and
Germany and Italy for the Axis so Japan wouldn't particularly surprise
me as Japanese physicists knew immediately what had been dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagaski) but the actual engineering of a manufacturing
base was something nobody but the US was able to achieve during the
war which is why the US Manhattan project included plenty of Brits and Canadians - including the first ever person to die of the radiation of
a near critical mass. His apologists claim his sacrifice of his life
prevented either a nuclear explosion or meltdown. Myself I'm not so
sure but what seems clear is the near chain reaction he prevented
generated lethal amounts of radiation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin
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From Newsgroup: soc.history.what-if

The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:

... the US Manhattan project included plenty of Brits and Canadians ...

And an Italian, several Hungarians, and even some Germans.

Klaus Fuchs, later exposed as a Soviet agent, was a German
Communist. He was cleared as having no possible loyalty to
Nazi Germany, and was sent to the US by Britain, where he
had been interned as an enemy alien. He was a significant
contributor: it was said that better "compartmentalization"
would not have limited the success of his spying for the USSR,
because he would have been _in_ the most secret and important
"compartment", due to his technical brilliance.
--
Nous sommes dans une pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerdos.
--- General Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot at Sedan, 1870.
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