General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: "Das Boot" TV series. And Japanese officers/Plutonium on board.
Posted by:
kurt
()
Date: May 07, 2007 04:19PM
Simon:
Not to get stuck in a discussion not directly related to U-boats, but while many of the items you brought up are correct, I think some of your points are not borne out by the facts.
You are correct that there are many fanciful stories from the U-234 and its eye-catching cargo list.
But I will point out that the Japanese had only an embryonic atomic research program (which the yellow-cake on U-234 was meant to supply). They never came close to detonating anything - fanciful stories to the contrary have floated around in avenues that should know better (like the History channel) but these stories are completely false. The American occupation had every opportunity to examine in detail the state of Japanese research in every field, and no evidence of any kind has ever been found for more than a few obscure labs, let alone the vast industrial infrastructure necessary to produce an actual device.
Regards,
Kurt
Not to get stuck in a discussion not directly related to U-boats, but while many of the items you brought up are correct, I think some of your points are not borne out by the facts.
You are correct that there are many fanciful stories from the U-234 and its eye-catching cargo list.
But I will point out that the Japanese had only an embryonic atomic research program (which the yellow-cake on U-234 was meant to supply). They never came close to detonating anything - fanciful stories to the contrary have floated around in avenues that should know better (like the History channel) but these stories are completely false. The American occupation had every opportunity to examine in detail the state of Japanese research in every field, and no evidence of any kind has ever been found for more than a few obscure labs, let alone the vast industrial infrastructure necessary to produce an actual device.
Regards,
Kurt
