[OldNewYork]

Interesting. I’d heard of the sabotage of the Norwegian heavy water, and had vague knowledge of the German atomic program. This is the first I’ve heard of a Japanese one though.

I’d also heard, and I don’t think there’s as much emphasis on this as there should be when moralizing follows mention of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that our atomic bombs were being rushed forward to use on the Germans, but they surrendered before the bombs were ready. So... Japan.

[Spruce]

The Invasion of Okinawa is what made the atomic bombing of Japan inevitable.

The death-toll of that operation, on both sides, moved all casualty estimates of a conventional invasion of any more Japanese soil into numbers that made the plan ridiculous.

[fred2008]

Japan’s effort:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nuclear_weapon_program

The sole research building was fire bombed on April 13, 1945 by B-29s over Tokyo. Totally destroyed their little enrichment project. Basically, it was nothing at all. No chance of creating a bomb. They didn’t have the capabiities like they do now.