Japan Developed an Atomic Bomb in WW2. It Laid the Groundwork for North Korea's Nuclear Program

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2020

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Japan’s WWII development of a nuclear program is not universally known. But after decades of research into national intelligence archives both in the US and abroad, today’s guest Robert Wilcox builds on his earlier accounts and provides the most detailed account available of the creation of Japan’s version of our own Manhattan Project—from the project’s inception before America’s entry into WWII, to the possible detonation of a nuclear device in 1945 in present-day North Korea.
Wilcox, author of Japan's Secret War, weaves a portrait of the secret giant industrial complex in northern Korea where Japan’s atomic research and testing culminated. And it is there that North Korea, following the Japanese defeat, salvaged what remained of the complex and fashioned its own nuclear program. This program puts not only Japan, but also its allies, including the US, in jeopardy.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	History is just a bunch of names and dates and facts.
0:15.6	It's the collection of all the stories throughout human history that explained how and why
0:19.4	we got here.
0:21.1	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast, where we look at the forgotten, neglected, strange,
0:26.1	and even counterfactual stories that made our world what it is.
0:29.9	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
0:32.2	When it comes to World War II technology, the country that most people focus on is Germany.
0:45.5	Its tanks and its fighters were superior to those United States in the beginning of the
0:48.9	war.
0:49.9	And there was a lot of development on secret weapons programs that still intrigued people
0:53.8	to today, and a lot know that they were also fairly well advanced and far along in a nuclear
0:58.9	weapons program.
1:00.6	Operation Paperclip was a program to bring Nazi scientists to the United States after
1:04.8	World War II.
1:06.1	Many of them were absolutely critical members of the Apollo program and allow the United
1:10.1	States to win the space race.
1:12.1	A country that gets less attention is Japan.
1:15.5	Most know if they're into naval history that the early fighters and the naval combat fighters
1:19.9	were superior to those of the United States, but after a while the US beats them technologically.
1:25.2	However, what most people don't know is that Japan developed a nuclear weapons program
1:30.5	in World War II that not only was advanced, but it was arguably in front of Germany, and
1:36.2	they possibly detonated a nuclear device in 1945 and would have been able to use weapons
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Unplugged, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Unplugged and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.