What if We Had to Bomb Japan Again

TOKYO—What if Nippon had been the first to use the diminutive bomb in Earth War Two—and what if its pinnacle-secret research provided the backbone for the nuclear threat the globe now faces from Democratic people's republic of korea?

These are some of the tough questions asked in Robert K. Wilcox's book, Nippon's Secret War, start published in the United States in 1995, but appearing now for the first time in Nihon equally the world marks the 74th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The book, bound to exist controversial here, has been updated extensively, and the subtitle has been changed. Formerly it was "Japan'southward Race Against Time to Build Its Own Atomic Bomb." At present information technology's "How Nihon's Race To Build Its Ain Atomic Bomb Provided The Groundwork For Northward Korea'south Nuclear Programme."

Its Japanese translator views it as a nuclear deterrent in itself.

Wilcox has written a number of books examining historical mysteries and conspiracy theories, from the Shroud of Turin to the Kennedy assassination, which may put some readers off. But over the adjacent nearly 24 years since the kickoff publication of Japan's Hugger-mugger State of war he has connected to research this country'due south WWII diminutive plan, building on his already extensive research as he gathered first-hand interviews with Japanese scientists who worked on the project, talked to U.S. officials, gathered classified and declassified documents from many countries, and put together a compelling narrative of Japan's attempts to acquire the ultimate weapon. (Ironically, this third edition of his volume is existence published in Japan before it will be published in the United States; it won't be available in America until January.)

While it is known that Japan was developing an atomic bomb, the scale and intent has been sharply debated.  Wilcox notes that U.Southward. officials, out of political expediency, helped Japan embrace up some horrendous state of war-crimes, including cruel biological experiments on prisoners of war. He argues that in the same vein the U.South. government may as well have kept underground much of what it knew most Nihon's nuclear program.

"Make no mistake," he writes,  "Japan would have used the flop without hesitation or compunction" had it successfully produced one. The Japanese leaders and their scientists "were committed to creating such a device" at a moment when they and other nations "raced against each other and fourth dimension to make history's showtime nuclear weapon. They failed but they were closer to success than history has given them credit for."

Wilcox makes a instance that Nihon successfully detonated an atomic device close to what was then called Konan, Korea, on or about August 12, 1945, which is to say vi days after Hiroshima was bombed on August six, killing over 90,000 civilians, and three days later the Nagasaki bomb that killed at least 40,000 people on August 9. Japan's conclusion to accept unconditional surrender on August 15, according to Wilcox, came afterwards its own exam and, perhaps, the realization that it was too belatedly to respond in kind.

Japan every bit Victim and Villain

In 1991, William Chapman, a former Washington Post Tokyo Bureau Chief, in his book, Inventing Nippon , noted that mail service-war education here ensured that most people knew little about the suffering of others nether Japanese rule.

"For the boilerplate Japanese, Japanese atrocities were the rumors of war….The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the incendiary raids on [Japanese] cities, these were indisputable…. The state of war made sense merely if Japan were a victim, and that is how a great many people remembered information technology."

Those observations are even more than truthful at present. The current administration of Prime number Minister Shinzo Abe, backed by a strong Shinto cult and right-wing entrance hall, Nippon Kaigi, has made tremendous efforts to erase memories of Japanese war crimes, or flatly deny them. (This desire to hibernate the by is likely the driving forcefulness behind the electric current merchandise war with Korea, which comes after Korea'southward Supreme Court ordered Japanese firms to pay added compensation to former Korean slave laborers.)

There are many here who still have no thought Nihon was building its ain diminutive bomb—and almost succeeded—but was besides late. The United States was about too late learning that fact as well.

The U.S. likely became aware that Nippon was attempting to develop an diminutive weapon by early 1945, and was caught off guard.  In February 1945, the OSS (the predecessor to the CIA) circulated a report most "stories" of "an diminutive belch to be used against [Allied] aircraft."

A few months afterward, allied intelligence sources filed a written report near a scientist rising to speak to the Japanese Firm of Peers [the parliament of Nihon at the time] and announcing "he is succeeding in his research for a matter so powerful that it would require very lilliputian potential energy to destroy an enemy fleet within a few moments." It was clear to those who knew most such things, that the scientist must have been speaking of an diminutive flop. So, when a large Nazi submarine was captured in May of 1945 that was supposed to be carrying a half a ton of uranium to Japan, the U.S. was greatly alarmed.

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

To brand matters worse, by the end of 1945 the Soviets—who did non yet have an atomic flop—had occupied much of Korea north of the 38th parallel and the found where the Japanese cantlet bomb had been developed was under their control.

In the summer of 1946,  David Snell, an amanuensis with the 24th Criminal Investigation Disengagement in Korea, who had been discharged from service, wrote about information technology publicly in the Atlanta Constitution . He had interviewed a Japanese officer on his way dwelling from Korea who said he had been in charge of security for the atom bomb projection. The name used for the source was an alias. You tin can read the original dispatch and related dispatches here.  Snell wrote:

Nippon developed and successfully tested an atomic flop three days prior to the end of the state of war…..She destroyed unfinished atomic bombs, secret papers and her atomic bomb plans merely hours before the advance units of the Russian Army moved into Konan, Korea, site of the projection.

Japanese scientists who developed the bomb are now in Moscow, prisoners of the Russians. They were tortured past their captors seeking diminutive "know-how." The Korean project was staffed by about 40,000 Japanese workers, of whom approximately 25,000 were trained engineers and scientists. The arrangement of the establish was set up so that the workers were restricted to their areas. The inner sanctum of the plant was deep in a cave. Hither simply 400 specialists worked.

The article summarizes the tactical and strategic goals of the project:

When task forces and invasion spearheads brought the war ever closer to the Japanese mainland, the Japanese Navy undertook the production of the atomic flop equally defense confronting amphibious operations. Atomic bombs were to be flown against Allied ships in Kamikaze suicide planes.

Since the Soviets did not explode their ain device until 1949, information technology is unclear how much they knew about the Japanese inquiry efforts, in fact, and how useful the intelligence was, or was not. David Holloway, in his scholarly tome Stalin and the Bomb, does not mention the Japanese nuclear program. Much of the Russian inquiry was based on information stolen from the Manhattan Projection in the Usa.

But in his volume, Wilcox sets out to substantiate much of the 1946 scoop and add much more detail.

Nihon had been considering an atomic bomb from early in the war and research had taken place in the tardily 1930s. The original plan was to detonate an atomic bomb in the continental United States. Circa belatedly 1942 or early 1943, Premier Hideki Tojo called Minister of War Gen. Toranosuke Kawashima to his office. He told him, "The atomic bomb projects of the U.Southward. and Germany are progressing. If we are behind, we will lose the war. You showtime to make it."

Uranium: A Double-Edged Sword

Japanese scientists had a proficient noesis of atomic theory, and they knew they needed massive amounts of uranium. The plan to brand an atomic flop began in earnest, and scientists all across the Japanese empire began working on the project, especially at the Korean complex, where there was a wealth of hydro-electric power and possibly uranium deposits. The Korean site became the Los Alamos of Japan'due south Manhattan Project as Japan began searching for uranium all over its empre earlier, finally, turning to its Nazi allies. They had a source for it in Czechoslovakia.

There are moments of nighttime one-act in the volume as information technology describes Nippon'due south attempts to become enough uranium from its German allies. Yasukazu Kigoshi, technical specialist and embassy attaché with the Japanese contingent in Berlin, said at first the German Ministry of Economic science was uncooperative.

In his interview with Wilcox, Kigoshi recalled, "So because of my nature, I got very angry and I sent a telegram to the High german regime by myself. I told them, 'The reason we need pitchblende [uranium ore] is for the development of atomic power. Nosotros are now nether the Tripartite Pact [the Axis agreement] and we are both fighting against America and England. Then what is going on here that y'all don't desire to cooperate?' Either my telegram was good or Oshima [the official] talked to Hitler straight…. They answered that they would give u.s. 2 tons."

Toward the end of the war, as Nazi Deutschland fell apart, a German submarine was dispatched to Japan with two Japanese officers on board and one,234.59 pounds of uranium oxide for the Japanese war machine—which if successfully enriched would exist enough to make one atom bomb. During the expedition, Germany was defeated and Hitler committed suicide. Less than a calendar week later on the transport surrendered to Centrolineal forces on May 14, 1945, roughly 500 miles from Cape Race, Newfoundland. The discovery of the uranium sent off shock-waves.  

J. Robert Oppenheimer, the male parent of the American atomic bomb, is said to have personally come to inspect the cargo. Information technology was requisitioned for the Manhattan Project.

Wilcox notes the "irony"  is that uranium bound for Japan's diminutive bombs may have "helped bring atomic devastation to Nihon" with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Baronial that same year.

Yoshiaki Yano, who translated the Wilcox book, was formerly a major general in Japan's Self-Defence Forces and is a noted expert on nuclear deterrents, explains the reasons are more than complex.

"The outset and 2d editions were both deemed possibly made for lack of testify," Yano told The Daily Beast.  "That made things easier for the scientists involved in the development, the industry, and the allies… for Japan to position itself as a nation that was just a victim of nuclear weapons and incapable of possessing these powers itself. The Japanese, especially in the academic world, the media and the education industry took it upon themselves to follow through on this and collectively worked to conceal this office of history and ignore the facts presented in this book."

"An aeriform photograph of Hiroshima, Japan, shortly after the \"Little Boy\" atomic bomb was dropped. Dated 1945"

Universal History Annal/Getty

Yano also is convinced that the work left behind by Japanese scientists helped create North korea's nuclear program as detailed in the book. He is also of the opinion that Nippon should take its ain nuclear weapons for defense.

"It's clear that the U.s., the Soviet Union, N Korea and China and the Chinese Nationalist Party all must take known the truth nigh Japan's nuclear weapons, merely have hidden it through and through along with the fact that they have intercepted Japan's work in the past. The father of Northward Korea's nuclear programme is very closely connected to Nihon. The irony is that Nihon is now being threatened by People's republic of china, Russia and Due north Korea's nuclear powers."

Yano sees the publication of the volume as a positive matter.

"The Japanese people and especially the people running this nation should know that Nippon has a high potential ability to possess nuclear arms and that [we] do not need to be scared of the nuclear threats."

He adds, "Japan possesses an independent power of nuclear deterrence. Information technology should strive towards independence in its national defense while actively sharing the management and stabilization of international society."

In the end, the takeaway from Nihon'due south Clandestine War isn't that the bombing of Hiroshima was justified because the Japanese would have bombed the U.s.a. first if they had been faster. The real lesson is that Japan was 1 more nation that came very shut to creating a viable nuclear weapons programme, and like Dr. Frankenstein, may have helped create its own monster.

Wilcox calls for further report of Japan's atomic bomb history and into the reasons the U.S. government still keeps many of the materials classified. The Japanese destroyed much of the research related to their weapons programs at the close of the war, but new evidence continues to be constitute. Certainly, more study would exist merited.

At that place are lessons to be learned from the tragedies of war, just in order to learn them y'all have to accept history equally it is, not every bit you would like it to be. And in modern Japan revisionist leaders like Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are more concerned nigh rewriting history than learning from it. That is also tragic.

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

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