What is the sentiment in Japan vis a vis going nuclear?
My understanding, if they do, could have a deliverable (all platforms) warhead in 6 months. True?
5.56mm
There is a big push here in Japan in many quarters behind the scenes in a very sensitive way, to a) revise their MacArthur “renunciation of war” Constitution, and b) ASAP go nuclear weapons now, something they swore off because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But in terms of self defense, it is “shoganai” (it cannot be helped). They did not start this tiff, and have had to put up with such a bad neighbor North Korea for years, yes, as you said, Kehoe-san, push is indeed coming to shove in Japan and with a conservative party now at the helm (Abe Government), it looks like they have all the pieces in place to move forward post haste and make DPRK look like kid’s play when it comes to nuke arsenal and delivery capability. Of course, that will get South Korea going too, and then Taiwan will want them as well. This is what we call an arms race. All due to the little Fat One who couldn’t keep his Taepodong missile tucked in his Fruit of the Looms and his big fat mouth shut.
As I posted back in 2008 when Japan going nuclear was being discussed:
A few years ago, Japanese Defense Minister (I’m not sure if it’s the current one—I don’t pay that close attention to the cabinets of our allies) remarked “If Japan decides it needs nuclear weapons on Monday, by Friday it will have them.”
Given that the Japanese atomic energy agency has 20 of the 100 most powerful supercomputers in the world, I suspect they already have working designs, if not components ready for assembly, you know, things like nicely machined hollow spheres of plutonium, neutron sources, purified deuterium and tritium, shaped charges, . . .