Calling all vulcanologists: I have heard conflicting information that Mt.
Suribachi on Iwo Jima was either an extinct volcano or a dormant one.
If a dormant one, could the Japanese have mined it to get it to erupt?
Probably impossible, but it would have been the ultimate defensive weapon.
Just another of my hideous military concepts. It would probably take more
dynamite than the Japanese had available to set it off: certainly more than
the British used in WWI at Messines Ridge to blow up the German trenches.
If feasible, the Japanese could have waited until the Marines had conquered
90% of the island and had the maximum amount of supplies on the beach.
The airfields would have been destroyed and Iwo rendered useless for
months.
anyways, wouldnt it be easier for the japanese to ask Germany for the Nuclear technology
Bad idea - the Japanese nuclear scientists were substantially smarter than the German ones, and got substantially closer to a working bomb. That isn’t saying much though - they figured out the critical mass of U-235 to a fair degree of accuracy, and started work on gaseous diffusion. The gaseous diffusion lab then promptly got flattened by B-29s, and that was the end of the programme.
Its claimed the Japanese had built just a handfull of the cyclotron valves for controling the gas seperation of the Uranium isotopes. The US used literally thousands of these devices to produce its few kilograms of Uranium 235. If true then I wonder how soon the Japanese industry could have built the necessary equipment?
That would only be possible and then by a hairsbreadth, if there was an upwelling of magma already to erupt, other wise, its like opening a tap on an empty,and unpressurized pipe. nothing is present to be moved by the nothing present to push it.
Had there been conditions present to cause an eruption, it would have been impossible to occupy the mount as the Japanese had. The sulphur fumarols are not really good indicators of imminent vulcanic activity. It is however, and very interesting thought.
Ummm… there’s no such thing as a “cyclotron valve”. A cyclotron is a device for throwing molecules around in a circle very, very fast - atom smashers like CERN work on the same principle but scaled up immensely. The Japanese ones were lab-scale cyclotrons and of no use in enriching Uranium on an industrial scale as required.
The US didn’t build anywhere near that many - IIRC they built a couple of dozen Calutrons (California Cyclotrons), each of which required several tonnes of Silver wire and as much electricity as half the state. IIRC total power consumption for Oak Ridge where they were based was something like 500 MWe.
As for how soon the Japanese could have built the equipment required, I’d say they could have enough for a bomb 2-3 years after someone dropped one on them. While the Japanese physicists were actually reasonably clued up (far better than the Germans under Heisenberg who couldn’t find their arse with both hands and a map), they couldn’t get the resources. The guy in charge of the Programme actually told the head physicist to use conventional explosive instead of Uranium in the bomb because Uranium was hard to enrich!
What about the Japanese unleashing Godzilla to sink US troop transports in a hypothical invasion of Japan?
SHHHHHHHHH! don’t tell anyone, but Godzilla was a double agent for the allies…
Bit of a problem there. Japan didn’t have nukes, so they couldn’t release him.
In the the first Godzilla film in 1954 he was released by American atomic tests in the Pacific.
Surprising that nuking Japan didn’t release Godzilla in 1945. Bit of a pity, actually. Then they’d know what it was like to have a monster rampaging across their lands like they’d been doing to others for the preceding 15 years.
The original Japanese film was a metaphor for further American atomic destruction visited on Japan as the innocent victim, reinforcing Japan’s distorted perceptions of itself on a number of levels.
The Japanese Godzilla (or Gojira) is a longer, more solemn, and far bleaker movie than its American counterpart, thick with references to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and “black rain.” Its Japan is a nation of fatherless children and radiation-scarred survivors; much of the movie recalls John Hersey’s classic nonfiction account, Hiroshima. Gojira, sleeping at the bottom of the ocean, is awoken and irradiated by American nuclear detonations. Indeed, Honda called his monster "the A-bomb made flesh,” a reference to the displacement of religious tradition–both Japanese and American–by technology.
You know, you’ve touched on a larger point here…
When I was younger, I used to be a fan of Japanese anime’ cartoons because of their sophistication and adept use of science fiction. Two cartoons in particular I liked were “Starblazers” and “Robotron.” What occurred to me later was the plots and themes were little more than extremely sanitized allegories for WWII, again hinting at the “Japanese-as-victim and not perpetrator” mentality. For instance, the plot of “Starblazers” was very dubious and almost laughable…
The series began as earth (aka Japan) was being pummeled by an alien civilization bombing us with radiation meteors after, of course, earth’s star-fleet had been mostly destroyed by superior alien technology. So, what do the shattered earthlings do after being forced to live underground because the earth is now a giant waterless desert? They of course find the now reveled WWII battleship Yamato, and rebuild it into a giant interstellar space warship and send it out to battle aliens and to attack their home planet and to seek allies.
I recall even at a very young age saying to myself, “there’s something a bit funny about this.” 
Of course, the earthlings living underground never, ever -say- invaded the nearby solar system of Alpha Centauri, and looted, raped, and massacred a large segment of it’s alien, sentient population. Did they? Even their popular entertainment culture has a ring of apologist mythology to it. Doesn’t it?
Maybe not. Perhaps it’s just using history for fictional material. If we want to interpret things through a particular lens we’ll often find what we want.
Maybe it does. We could view the stuff you’ve mentioned as the covert forerunner of the overt nationalism and revisionism of Kobayashi Yoshinori, who’s been using manga comics to push the line of the Japanese Society for Textbook Reform, with which he is, or at least was, associated. I came across him in researching that Society. http://myhome.naver.com/fischer/column/gosen-ky-e.htm
Google his name for more.
I don’t think it’d be hard to make an argument that Japanese popular culture has created or promoted the mythological nationalist / revisionist view, but it might be a case of looking through a narrow lens and getting the wrong slant on a much bigger and more complex picture. See, for example,
http://japanfocus.org/products/details/1707
The complexity is illustrated in the many metaphors in the 2005 film
Lorelei (quote from the last link)
Although the novel for Lorelei was actually written concurrent with the script, the film version reduces the long and detailed plot of the novel into a more simple, uplifting story of men on a mission to defend their loved ones, with a focus as much on their loves and friendships as their heroism. The story, set in the last days of WWII, centers on a submarine, the I-507, manufactured by the Germans but acquired by the Japanese after VE Day, that contains the Lorelei System. That system, initially a mystery, is ultimately revealed to be composed of a German-born, teenage girl with paranormal powers who, when attached to elaborate sensory apparatus, provides the sub with extremely accurate mapping and trajectory information, something that makes the sub virtually invincible. The sub’s mission, however, is not to attack America, but to save Japan. Right after the bomb drops on Hiroshima, a member of the Navy command, Captain Asakura, orders Lieutenant Commander Masami to take the I-507, break through US Navy defense lines, and attack the airfield on Tinian Island before more atomic bombs can be launched. There is not much time, for only a few days after they start, the second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki and the Americans are preparing a third.
It soon becomes clear, however, that not all is as it seems. The Lorelei System is rather brutal technology, practically draining the girl Paula of life in order to work. Asakura’s men on the sub then try to take command, revealing that the officer’s plan in fact is not to stop the next A-bomb attack, but actually to allow it, simultaneously turning over the Lorelei System to the Americans. Asakura’s reasoning, very briefly, is as follows: Japan made enormous mistakes during the war, under a command that was incompetent and irresponsible. In a scene where he confronts the top military brass, Asakura even “proves” their cowardice and refusal to take responsibility for their actions. For Japan to surrender as is, he argues, would be to allow the main government and military leaders to live and, arguably, go on to lead postwar Japan. Asakura worries about the postwar Japan that would be produced by such cowards, one in which no one takes responsibility and thus no one really makes an authentic commitment to their country. He thus effectively advocates the suicide of the nation—or at least its beheading. The atomic bombing of Tokyo, he reasons, would instantly eliminate the wartime leaders, clean the slate, and allow Japan to be reborn into a proper nation after the war.
Masami, the film’s hero, will not allow this, however. He and his crew overpower Asakura’s men, a turn of events which prompts Asakura’s suicide back in Tokyo. They then solidify their camaraderie and continue on with their mission, with Paula willingly enduring the Lorelei System in order to weave these men through American defenses. Masami, looking towards the future, eventually lets Paula and the seaman who loves her, Origasa, off board. The I-507 then makes the final thrilling push, downs the plane carrying the third atomic bomb, and then simply disappears. A brief final scene in the present implies that the I-507 is still out there somewhere.
My bold.
There’s a lot of interpretations that can be made of this complex fantasy, but it brings out Japan’s responsibility for its own fate and the desirability of getting rid of the militarists etc in a way that is exactly the opposite of the view promoted by the current nationalists / revisionists. Viewers can read what they like into the end, but given Asakura’s position one inference is that he predicted the Japan that actually resulted and which cannot take responsibility for its past. Or one can interpret it as a glorious partriotic victory by Masami defeating Asakura’s treacherous intentions. Whatever view one takes, it’s not a film that presents a monochrome nationalist / revisionist version. It was a very popular film in Japan, which suggests that the average Japanese might be more open to ideas exploring or challenging their nation’s war history than are many of the benighted idiots running their country and education sysem (not that Japan has a monopoly on being led by benighted idiots).
If we look at popular culture in the West with fresh eyes we’ll find a lot of mythology about our own participation in the war. However, leaving aside the propagana style wartime and immediate post-war stuff, I think it’s generally been a lot closer to the historical record than the absurd revisionism of the far, and not so far, right in Japan as exemplified by the Society for Textbook Reform, one of its former leaders the current Prime Minister Abe, and their ilk.
Ok if we are speaking what if than what if they had these
The person who made these videos did a great job !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWBKSO4DvWk part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfSHV4zYMw&mode=related&search= part 2
I saw that particular bit of anime’, it was strange to see such a thing, very amusing…