[syhprum (OP)]

Japan had no shortage of first class physics minds and well knew what was needed to make the weapons, what progress did they make were they simply held back by a lack of resources to produce the Uranium and Plutonium isotopes by the techniques that were available in the 1940,s?
There have been rumours that captured Japanese U235 partly fuelled the Hiroshima bomb but probably not true.
Did they know that it was very unlikely that the Americans had large stocks of the weapons and did they determine the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were different types.

[evan_au]

US President Harry Truman hinted that after dropping bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, they would keep dropping them.
This caused the Japanese to surrender.

What he didn't say is that at that time they had only assembled 3 bombs, and they had all been used (the first non-portable model in a desert test).

[alancalverd]

Wikipedia carries a good article on Japanese nuclear weapons, suggesting that there was indeed an active and potentially viable program but it wasn't enthusiastically supported by the Navy, who would have been responsible for delivering the device.

As with Germany, the program did not have sufficient resources to produce enriched uranium in the quantities required. It is curious that WWII, despite being a highly technological conflict,  was ultimately determined by the dominance and attrition of resources rather than tactical brilliance.

[Bored chemist]

It is curious that WWII, despite being a highly technological conflict,  was ultimately determined by the dominance and attrition of resources rather than tactical brilliance.

I suspect that it often is, but the people on the "lucky" side claim it was their tactics, rather than good fortune.

[jimbobghost]

ah yes; the allies won WWII with "good fortune"...sort of the same "good fortune" with which the free people of the world will eventually overcome radical Muslims and socialist countries.

[jeffreyH]

Do we really want this to ever happen again?

[jeffreyH]

ah yes; the allies won WWII with "good fortune"...sort of the same "good fortune" with which the free people of the world will eventually overcome radical Muslims and socialist countries.

Be careful what you wish for.

[Petrochemicals]

ah yes; the allies won WWII with "good fortune"...sort of the same "good fortune" with which the free people of the world will eventually overcome radical Muslims and socialist countries.

Yep, i hate the french as well.