has been speculation for many years that Japan was working
on the A-Bomb. An article appeared in World War II Magazine
(July 1995) by Al Hemingway that indicates indeed, that
Japan may have exploded an atomic bomb on a tiny islet in
the Sea of Japan on August 12, 1945.
central figure in Japan's atomic research was Dr. Yoshio
Nishina, a brilliant scientist who was highly patriotic.
He had traveled in Europe in the 1930's and became close
friends with Niels Bohr, a Danish scientist and Nobel Prize
winner and a close associate of Albert Einstein.
1931 Dr. Nishina received his own laboratory at the Institute
of Physical and Chemical Research. In 1936 this facility
built a 26-inch cyclotron. Nishina knew that building a
uranium bomb was possible and fearful that the Americans
were already at work on such a bomb. In 1937, Nishina had
a 220-ton 60-inch cyclotron built. By October of 1940 Lt.
General Takeo Yasuda of the Japanese
Army concluded that building such a bomb was practical so
by July of 1941 the program was funded. B-29 raids hampered
the final work to a point that in early 1945 that some equipment
is believed to have been shipped to Konan, Korea, which
was not under attack.
source was Robert Wilcox's Japan's Secret War, published
by Morrow in 1985 and republished by Marlowe in 1995. In
the book, Wilcox recounted a long-forgotten 1946 article
by David Snell in the Atlantic Constitution that described
the detonation of the bomb And unearthed U.S. intelligence
documents indicating America believed the Japanese program
had moved to Korea. Snell, who is dead now, stood by the
accuracy of his story saying that his source was a Japanese
officer who was in charge of security at Konan, Korea. Soviet
domination of the region has prevented any further information
from being obtained.
Vic Durrance, Historian (2000-2004)
39th Bomb Group (VH) Association