Japan could have nuclear weapons in the time it takes to assemble nuclear weapons!
“Japan could have nuclear weapons in the time it takes to assemble nuclear weapons!”
I have no doubt you are correct. However, if Japan assembles nuclear weapons because they need nuclear weapons they will likely have already suffered a first strike that has killed much of their population.
The greatest use of nuclear weapons has been as a deterrent against attack. If you actually build them because you need them, you have already suffered tremendous damage. For the weapons to work as a deterrent they need to be widely advertised and demonstrated. This is one reason I don’t support the testing freeze. Those tests were of old weapons about to be decommissioned. (They go bad over time because the electronics is vulnerable to radiation damage.)
Because of the data the US got from its nuclear testing it is unlikely that our weapons will fail, providing they have been maintained and regularly rebuilt. Did that happen under Obama? I’d guess no. We need to completely revamp our arsenal after each Democrat leaves office.
I suspect, because of Obama, Japan will join a new defense group to protect itself from China whether the US has a Democratic president or no. The new group would likely contain India, Israel, Taiwan and South Korea. (Yes, I am aware the politics of this is daunting. But, necessity and invention...etc.)
I read somewhere that they have enough high-quality fissionable material to make hundreds of nuclear bombs, and that they could assemble components in a few days. Their stockpile of weapons-grade fissionable material is huge. If need be, they can quickly go into offense mode (once they do away with the constitutional limits).