Even if it was physically impossible it doesn't mean that the Japanese couldn't have wasted money on it thinking it was real.
How bad war gone when USA fighting Japan
- Thread starter Jason222
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Even if it was physically impossible it doesn't mean that the Japanese couldn't have wasted money on it thinking it was real.
That would be a really spectacular idea. NUKING Stalin's post Great Patriotic War Soviet Union.
That would be one way to see Halsey's statement actually come true.
Kissinger
Banned
It was a directed microwave ray that could kill up to 50 feet and was tested on humans
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Anyone interested in the Japanese nuclear programs (one run by the Army, one by the Navy) should look at "The Day Man Lost; Hiroshima, 6 August 1945" by the Pacific War Research Society. It tracks the US, German and Japanese programs as well as the Japanese diplomatic efforts in 1945.
In March 43, the Japanese program decided that their only practical means of producing U was the Heat Dispersion method, all other methods were beyond the capability of Japan. Even though they made a prototype separator by November, by the end of the year the scientists had realized they would not be able to make an atomic bomb in time to change the course of the war. (pg41)
The main research building was in Tokyo. It burned to the ground hours after a firebomber raid on 13 Apr 45 (a Friday, the day FDR's death was announced).
In March 43, the Japanese program decided that their only practical means of producing U was the Heat Dispersion method, all other methods were beyond the capability of Japan. Even though they made a prototype separator by November, by the end of the year the scientists had realized they would not be able to make an atomic bomb in time to change the course of the war. (pg41)
The main research building was in Tokyo. It burned to the ground hours after a firebomber raid on 13 Apr 45 (a Friday, the day FDR's death was announced).
Admiral Halsey? Which statement?- feels like history n00b -
"Before we're done with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in Hell!"
-Admiral Halsey
I only knew it because I saw it mentioned earlier today (er, yesterday
) somewhere on the board."It was a directed microwave ray that could kill up to 50 feet and was tested on humans"
No it wasn't. No one is really sure what Tesla was talking about as there is no evidence of any such device ever working and Tesla was hazy about his ideas, though he was working with both X-rays and subatomic particles from cathode rays. Neither are microwaves. Some conject he was referring to his ionized steam particle gun idea which he made some grandious and impossible claims. It would not have worked. There is no record of it being tested on humans or anything else for that matter. The idea was a dud.
Tesla was a brilliant engineer, but he was not some sort of magician. I've noticed that some people seem to think that Tesla could wave his wand and change the laws of physics, and if only Tesla lived longer the world would be full of fantastical inventions. No it wouldn't. Scientists today aren't stupid and understand the principles of physics and chemistry in far greater depth than Tesla and scientists of his age ever could, Tesla's apparent plans were not going to work. There was no Tesla death ray.
No it wasn't. No one is really sure what Tesla was talking about as there is no evidence of any such device ever working and Tesla was hazy about his ideas, though he was working with both X-rays and subatomic particles from cathode rays. Neither are microwaves. Some conject he was referring to his ionized steam particle gun idea which he made some grandious and impossible claims. It would not have worked. There is no record of it being tested on humans or anything else for that matter. The idea was a dud.
Tesla was a brilliant engineer, but he was not some sort of magician. I've noticed that some people seem to think that Tesla could wave his wand and change the laws of physics, and if only Tesla lived longer the world would be full of fantastical inventions. No it wouldn't. Scientists today aren't stupid and understand the principles of physics and chemistry in far greater depth than Tesla and scientists of his age ever could, Tesla's apparent plans were not going to work. There was no Tesla death ray.
"Even if it was physically impossible it doesn't mean that the Japanese couldn't have wasted money on it thinking it was real."
True, there is even historic precedent for this with French science's mad fixation on the mythical N-ray in the early 1900s. They wasted a lot of time on their nationalistic response to German science's dominance of X-ray research. But there doesn't seem to have been any real Japanese death ray programme, at least not of any scale, so the amount of wasted effort appears to be minimal at worst. Redirecting that effort towards nuclear physics will likely have similarly minimal effect on progress.
True, there is even historic precedent for this with French science's mad fixation on the mythical N-ray in the early 1900s. They wasted a lot of time on their nationalistic response to German science's dominance of X-ray research. But there doesn't seem to have been any real Japanese death ray programme, at least not of any scale, so the amount of wasted effort appears to be minimal at worst. Redirecting that effort towards nuclear physics will likely have similarly minimal effect on progress.
Nietzsche
Banned
You could give Japan an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons and it would mean fuck-all without the ability to hit the United States with one. Japan doesn't need a super-weapon to win, it needs to borrow a legion of angels and one of the armies of Hell.
Short of that, or the Emperor turning into some kind of Dragon-God to reign death on all who oppose the Rising Sun, Japan has reached its limits.
Short of that, or the Emperor turning into some kind of Dragon-God to reign death on all who oppose the Rising Sun, Japan has reached its limits.
Actually, for all the Japan did much better than they should have done given the situation they were facing they still didn't do as well as they could have. They had some excellent subs for example, but never really employed them well, they threw them away running them against warships instead of hitting cargo ships, and if they'd had a decent CAP at Midway they might have pulled out with 2/3 carriers intact, which wouldn't have changed the outcome of the war, but would have made it a bit longer, and a bit more bloody for the US.
Jason222
Banned
In pratice longer war goes more likely USA look possibe dipimatic solutions. We never real test when came fighting Japan if war gone until 1947 or 1950 let say. The Allies might just look for dipimatic solution. Would USA stomch to fight if came cost 10 million soldiers one 1/10 population at the time. I am not sure.
Kissinger
Banned
I'm talking about the Japanese ray, the theory is that by using microwaves you heat something up from the inside, it's a practical but needed for much refinement.
There is no way that casualties of fighting Japan would be 10 million soldiers. I can imagine 1 or even 1.5 million casualties, but 10 million is just absurd, even for an invasion of Mainland Japan.
Snake Featherston
Banned
The only way things can go better for the Japanese than they did IOTL is either the Yellowstone Supervolcano or a rain of metors.
The problem was there was no way for the Japanese to achieve that. NONE.
Even the invasion would have been, at absolute worst One Million U.S./allied KIA (much more likely 200K with the million being total casualties, which is still pretty horrible). Japanese losses would have topped 10 million dead.
If the war had lasted until 1947 there would not have been a Japan. The urban population would have burned/starved to death and rural would have been starved/strafed to extinction. The largest concentration of living Japanese would have been on Formosa, followed, ironically enough, in the U.S.
"I'm talking about the Japanese ray, the theory is that by using microwaves you heat something up from the inside, it's a practical but needed for much refinement."
Microwaves heat water molecules through vibrational excitation, effectively steaming or even dehydrating (depending on water content)anything you put in your microwave oven. The Russians have supposedly developed a battlefield microwave device, for all I know the Americans may have as well, and one was also featured in a Batman movie. But the Japanese WW2 research in this area was not practical, it wasn't just a question of refinement.
Microwaves heat water molecules through vibrational excitation, effectively steaming or even dehydrating (depending on water content)anything you put in your microwave oven. The Russians have supposedly developed a battlefield microwave device, for all I know the Americans may have as well, and one was also featured in a Batman movie. But the Japanese WW2 research in this area was not practical, it wasn't just a question of refinement.