Japan and Germany actually cooperate on technology?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 1487
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Deleted member 1487

Apparently they actually had a technology exchange program IOTL, but were too withholding to really share each of their advancements:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoji_Ito#VHF
In late 1940 Commander Ito led a technical-exchange mission to Germany. Fluent in the German language and holding a doctorate from Dresden Technische Hochschule, he was well received. Staying several months, he became aware of their pulse-modulated radio equipment for detecting and ranging, and immediately sent word back to Japan that this technology should be incorporated in the NTRI-JRC effort. On August 2, 1941, even before Ito returned to Japan, funds were allocated for the initial development of a pulse-modulated Radio Range Finder (RRF – the Japanese code name for a radar).

The Germans had not yet developed a magnetron suitable for use in such systems, so their equipment operated in the VHF region. At the NTRI, they followed the Germans and built a prototype VHF set operating at 4.2 m (71 MHz) and producing about 5 kW. This was completed on a crash basis, and in early September 1941, the set detected a bomber at a range of 97 km (61 mi). The system, Japan’s first full radar, was designated Mark 1 Model 1 and quickly went into production.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_in_World_War_II#Japan
In the years prior to World War II, Japan had knowledgeable researchers in the technologies necessary for radar; they were especially advanced in magnetron development.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoji_Ito
Tsuneo Ito (no relationship to Yoji Ito) at Tokoku University developed an 8-split-anode magnetron that produced about 10 W at 10 cm (3 GHz). Based on its appearance, it was named Tachibana (or Mandarin, an orange citrus fruit). Tsuneo Ito joined the NTRI and continued his research on magnetrons in association with Yoji Ito. In 1937, they developed the technique of coupling adjacent segments (calling it push-pull), resulting in frequency stability, an extremely important magnetron breakthrough.[2][3]

Shigeru Nakajima,[4] a younger brother of Yoji Ito and a scientist at the Japan Radio Company (JRC), was also investigating magnetrons, primarily for the medical dielectric heating (diathermy) market. An alliance was made between NTRI and JRC for further magnetron development. In early 1939, led by Yoji Ito they built a 10-cm (3-GHz), stable-frequency Mandarin-type magnetron (No. M3) that, with water cooling, could produce 500-W power.[2]

Development at the NTRI continued on magnetrons, resulting in higher and higher power. Yoji Ito and others eventually came to believe that this device might be used as a weapon, encouraged by an earlier newspaper article telling of Nikola Tesla inventing a beam that would “bring down squadrons of aircraft 250 miles away.”[7] In 1943, work began in highest secrecy on a Ku-go (Death Ray) device.

A special laboratory was set up near Shimada, in the Shizuoka Prefecture, for developing a high-power magnetron that, if not as powerful as Tesla had boasted, might at least incapacitate an aircraft. A number of Japan’s leading physicists were involved. A 20 cm magnetron producing 100 kW was achieved, and by the end of the war a 1000 kW (1 MW) unit was undergoing preliminary testing.[6] At that time, the development was terminated and the hardware as well as all documentation was destroyed.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_magnetron
The cavity magnetron was widely used during World War II in microwave radar equipment and is often credited with giving Allied radar a considerable performance advantage over German and Japanese radars, thus directly influencing the outcome of the war. It was later described by American historian James Phinney Baxter III as "[t]he most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores".[29]

What if during the 1940 exchange Ito shared his developments with cavity magnetrons and set up a permanent exchange with the Germans to develop an enhanced program, with both sides sharing developments? It would sort of be like an Axis Tizard mission. The Germans had developed a magnetron in 1935, but because they hadn't worked out the physics of it yet, the phase shift created major problems in frequency stability, so they dropped it; by 1939 Ito had developed a frequency stable magnetron that fixed the problem the Germans had with their design. IOTL it took until they had shot down an RAF pathfinder in early 1943 with H2S radar mapping system that they got their hands on a working advanced magnetron and realized just how badly they screwed up and how far behind they were, which led them to rip it off and produce a few units at the end of the war.

Here with a less advanced unit, but in late 1940 they'd actually have time to develop the technology in conjunction with Japan, creating radar units with it probably by 1942, at least matching Allied developments, which would have far reaching consequences for the nighttime strategic bomber offensive.

Any thoughts on what such a cooperation would produce and what impact it would have on the conflict?
 
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Even if they've tried to work together in earnest, I don't think it would have worked out, just because of pure distance. The only routes that they could exchange tech by is via the sea or the Soviet Union, both of which are controlled by hostile powers who won't take kindly to the idea of them ganging up. Besides, Germany would have to be a lot more pro-Japanese than they were IOTL, outright refusing or cancelling aid to China much sooner. Considering what happened at Khalkhin Gol, it's hard for the Germans to think Japan has a chance to dent the Soviet Union any better than the Chinese at the time.
 

Deleted member 1487

Even if they've tried to work together in earnest, I don't think it would have worked out, just because of pure distance. The only routes that they could exchange tech by is via the sea or the Soviet Union, both of which are controlled by hostile powers who won't take kindly to the idea of them ganging up. Besides, Germany would have to be a lot more pro-Japanese than they were IOTL, outright refusing or cancelling aid to China much sooner. Considering what happened at Khalkhin Gol, it's hard for the Germans to think Japan has a chance to dent the Soviet Union any better than the Chinese at the time.
Fair point, but from 1940-41 the Soviets allowed the Germans and Japanese to trade via their rail system and aided them in shipping along Russia's northern coast. So it is perfectly possible for Ito to send the Germans information about his magnetron developments; as it was he was able to bring information about Germany's radar back to Japan to jump start their VHF radar program and get a working unit operational by the end of 1941 with that knowledge. Exchange would be much more difficult, but there were flights able to make it Japan after Barbarossa and there were of course the submarine missions that did exchange technology:
http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-yanagi-missions-japans-underwater-convoys.htm
Even if the exchange was a 1 time issue, German radar tech for Japanese magnetron technology, with then the historical exchange of technology (Germany sent Japan various engine technology among other things during the war), both sides would still massively benefit.

The exchanges and trade with Japan were already ongoing in 1938, so a 1940 technical exchange of radar technology is absolutely possible if Ito was willing to exchange it for greater access to German technologies. Khalkin Gol was a skirmish between 1 Japanese division and the equivalent of 10 Soviet ones and not well known outside of the two powers at the time. It seems to have had no impact on German-Japanese relations.
 
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