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Nazi Germany had no hope of making an atomic bomb, uranium cubes reveal

137 points · 121 comments · xqcgrek2

WalterBright · 1790963993 · focus · HN ↗
It's generally forgotten that Japan was also developing a nuclear bomb. They were a long ways from making a viable one, though. It was abandoned after the surrender.
1. fusslo · 1790964260 · focus · HN ↗
  I cant remember which, but a documentary about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki said that after the first bomb, Japanese scientists were deployed to confirm or deny the US's claim of an atomic weapon.
  If I remember right, the Japanese scientists confirmed signs of an atomic explosion, but the leaders were stuck in a debate as to whether or not to accept the findings
  Maybe someone better educated can correct me if I didn't get that history quite right
  Edit:
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshio_Nishina#Atomic_bomb" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshio_Nishina#Atomic_bomb
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunsaku_Arakatsu" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunsaku_Arakatsu (check out his academic advisor!)
  1. WalterBright · 1790984214 · focus · HN ↗
    The leaders knew immediately that it was an atomic bomb.
    Books:
    Code-Name Downfall by Allen
    Downfall by Frank
    The surrender was due to their fear that the US had a third bomb and would drop it on Tokyo.
    defrost · 1791010349 · focus · HN ↗
    They rebuilt Tokyo that fast already ?
    The strikes conducted by the USAAF on the night of 9–10 March 1945, codenamed Operation Meetinghouse, constitute the single deadliest and most destructive aerial bombing raid in human history. Sixteen square miles (41 km2; 10,000 acres) of central Tokyo was destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless.
    ~ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo
    Perhaps that "third bomb on Tokyo" fear was a bit made up and ahistoric.

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