re: #230 pre-Boomer Marine brat

Yes, Japan did have a “nuclear bomb program”.
It was WAAAAY th’ hell behind ours.
In essence, it was kindergarten.
Japan didn’t have the theoreticians needed for a credible atomic program.

According to Paul Johnson’s Modern Times, if I remember correctly, the Japanese leaders asked the head of their atomic weapons program if the detonation over Hiroshima was in fact an nuclear bomb, and if they could replicate it in six months. In other words, the Japanese were not prepared to surrender even after Hiroshima had been flattened. The second bomb was necessary.