Re: 1945- uranium to Japan and the issue today

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

A very interesting book on this is called "Japan's Secret War:The 

Secret Attempt to Build an Atomic Bomb" by Greg Dixon. In this book, 

Dixon recounts information he found in examining OSS files after the 

war that indicated  that Imperial Japan actually had a nuclear 

weapons program almost to the end o= f the war. Let me supply a few 

details. According to Dixon, a secret facility to perform nuclear 

weapons research= was set up in Manchuria. Huge quantities of 

electric power was provided by facilities owned by an industrialist 

named Noguchi, who owned huge holdin= gs in factories to produce 

fertilizer, in addition to hydroelectric powerplants. There were 

actually two nuclear weapons projects, one run by the Army and= one 

by the Navy, although one of these projects was eventually shut down. 

The= y unsuccessfully experimented with at least two methods of 

uranium enrichment,i.e. thermal diffusion via Clusius tubes and 

elecromagnetic separation using cyclotrons. The alleged participants 

were some very impo= rtant physicists, specifically Dr. Nishina, the 

researcher in cosmic rays, who = Dixon said ran one of the projects. 

Another minor alleged participant in Dixon' s book was Dr. Hideki 

Yukawa, who later discovered the pi-meson. Dixon indi cated he was 

involved as a researcher for one of the two programs.At the end of 

the war after the US detonated its weapons, the nuclear research 

center in Manchuria was captured by the Soviets and a good portion of 

the equipment and the scientists were transported to the Soviet 

Union, there to assist in Stalin's nuclear weapons program. Dixon 

also said a newspaper article was published during the Korean 

conflict that the US Marines in Korea found t he remains of this 

secret research facility.The story was then suppressed be cause of a 

desire for secrecy by the US authorities. I personally asked a frien 

d of mine(now deceased) who had been with the Marines at the Chosin 

Reservoir, and he indicated he heard at the time some secret facility 

had been discovere d nearby, but he was not told exactly what it was. 

This was truly a tantali zing detail for me. Finally, the story that 

you cited comes in, apparently Naz i Germany sent uranium to 

Japan(along with a large volume of mercury as I recall) via a cargo 

type U-boat built with extra large storage spaces(I c an't recall the 

U number right off) which was captured. Finally, after the war ended 

Dixon details a mini "Alsos" type project that the US undertook in 

Japan. The task was  to find out how far Japan had come toward 

producing  a weapon and to collect any nuclear materials. They 

apparently did not reco ver a weapon, or much fissile material. They 

were concerned enough however to r emove or destroy a good number of 

cyclotrons in Japan, presumably out of concer n that they could be 

used for enrichment purposes. This is a particularly important issue 

to keep in mind now, since there h ave been rumblings in Japan from 

some politicians that Japan should consider acquiring nuclear 

weapons. They apparently are concerned about China's military 

capabilities (and possibly growing dubious about our commitment) . 

The long recession they've been in could offer some temptations to 

increase economic activity by more military activities, and by 

acquiring more capabilities. The book is an excellent read and is a 

great intro to what  may be a new concern for nonproliferation in 

Asia.  



Dale Dusenbury, Environmental Radiation Specialist

NC Radiation Protection Section

919-571-4141

dale.dusenbury@ncmail.net



maury wrote:



> Recently came across this interesting tidbit of history -- can anyone

> say more now about the uranium being sent to Japan?

> Thanks,

> Maury       maury@webtexas.com

>  1945

> Germany's largest U-boat, the 1,700 ton Type XB minelayer U-234 96 was

 at

>

> sea when the war ended, and surrendered in mid-ocean to an American

> destroyer escort. Her original destination had been Japan; her cargo

> included two complete ME-262 jet fighters (disassembled in crates, but

> with complete technical data) and 550 kilograms of Uranium 235 (or

> Uranium oxide -- sources differ), packed in lead containers. The reason

> the uranium was being sent to Japan has never been determined 96 or, a

t

> least, revealed.



***************************************************************

Sandy Perle				Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  

Director, Technical			Extension 2306 			

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service	Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.		E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 	

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  	E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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