Japan Nukes?

Question

I watched a "report" that said Japan had develpoed Nuclear Weapons and actually tested one off North Korea about the time we bombed Hiroshima. To me this is revisionist bunk, the Japanese not wanting to admit inferiority, BUT, if it is true it lays to rest any argument that we should not have used nukes to end the war. As suicidal as Japan was there is no doubt in my mind they would have used them defending thier homeland.

Answer 1

This appears to be from a book by Wilcox (see source that follows in this answer) which was a summary of the Japanese nuclear research research program during the Pacific War. A review by an employee of the U.S. Dept. of Energy says the book was marred by the sensationalist opening chapter, where Wilcox speculates that the Japanese exploded a bomb in a test off Korea (apparently based on a fictional account of an attack on Los Angeles — i.e., an alternative history form of science fiction, I would imagine) or that the project was sufficiently advanced that a Japanese weapon was actually tested by the U.S. after the war ended. The Japanese research, starting in the 1930s, and the wartime development efforts by the Imperial Japanese Navy are discussed in http://www.answers.com/topic/japanese-atomic-program which also includes an evaluation of Wilcox's claims.

Answer 2

Axis forces were not so near to have a functional nuke bomb, and surely Germany was much more advanced in this.
In fact Germans probably managed to make explode a thing that was about similar to a nuclear bomb in the north of Poland, but its power was so limited that is not sure they did, in fact there were no victims, the interested area was quite little....the only footprints of this experiment are a little crater(about 2 m) in the north of Poland, not far from Peenemunde, little traces of radioactivity in the area, and some people that at that time saw german soldiers wearing something similar to an NBC suit....
Japan was probably not at the same point, in fact Germans sent a cargo submarine in mission to carry a lot of advanced technologies and some specialists to the allied Japan (to help japan fight against the common enemy), this was a very big submarine with a large cargo deck...it was carring project of advanced planes and tanks, prototipes of jet and rocket engines, and a little amount of Uranium(in fact German sailors were surprised to see boxes with the mark "U-238", that is the notation of uranium, instead of U-239 that was the name of their submarine), but this was probably to be used, as a catalizer, in the industrial production of the fuel applied by germans to contrast the lack of fuels during the war. So Japan was not supposed to have nuclear weapons in a short or medium term..
About the use of the Nukes: I think that was not so strictly needed, because the Japan was almost defeated, and probably also the invasion could be avoided, but I can understand that instead of the invasion, the Nukes probably saved more lifes than the people they killed, and I don't think that the people killed by the nukes would have loved to be killed by conventional weapons, and convenctional bombings often caused more victims than the nuclear bombs(for example the raid over Dresden, that took place only a few before the end of the war in Europe, with the only will to destroy one of the most important cultural and historical centers in Germany)

Answer 3

According to the history channel on cable TV, recent documents released from the archives did , in fact, reveal that Japan had a WMD and was planning on using it along the west coast of the US. The dropping of an A-bomb on Hisoshima ended their plans to attack the west coast of the US.

I don't believe this to be propaganda, what would be the point. I doubt that Japan shreaded the plans for this device, so it leaves one to believe if Japan could have it's own secret arsenal of bad boys, just in case !

Answer 4

I have never heard this. I don't believe it; the Japanese would have tested IN North Korea, not off its coast...

Either way, it doesn't really matter. The bomb was justified against Japan and surely SAVED more lives (both American and Japanese) then it took.

Japanese needed to be broken from their insane Emperor worship.

Answer 5

I saw the same thing on the History channel. I think that it happened, but they're too afraid to use it. If they come with one bomb, we'd come back at them with 3. They learned after WWII that the USA and the Allies are too strong and by attacking us, they provoke an even bigger attack. In the movie Pearl Harbor, the Japanese general, after they attack Pearl Harbor, says that by attacking us, he fears he has only awoken a sleeping giant. I think that philosophy stays with them today.

Answer 6

japan has invested into a nuclear program but only for commercialism and power. japan is now considered a non-aggresive state, and is not listed on the countries that have nuclear arms unlike the US, Iran, England, Russia, etc..

Answer 7

There is no doubt that Japan and Germany had their own nuclear programs.

But much like Iraq, I doubt they got as far as a bomb.

Answer 8

Maybe YOU need the kick in the butt. How could I have been drafted when there is no draft? Durp... I'd kick your ***... I just do not know what is the right end

Answer 9

Wow! That wasn't taught in my history books!

Answer 10

nice question