WI: Delayed Manhattan Project

Let's say that the Manhattan Project is delayed for a few months, six months at the most, what are the ramifications of this? I'm not too interested of how it would be delayed, but could this prove to be a critical point in the pre-Cold War balance?

Would it delay the end of the war, if only by a few months? Would this provide enough time for the Soviets to advance through the entire Korean peninsula and then set up a unified Korea under Communism? Could Operation Olympic be initiated at any stage? Would this see the creation of separate occupation zones in Japan, i.e. Would the Soviets try to invade the Home Islands?
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Assuming a delay of 6 months at start, means 6 months delay of available weapons, then the first is available in March 46. The USA then invades southern Japan in October 1946. The USA suffers massive casualties, and looks for ways to reduce losses on the planed spring landings near Tokyo. The USA likely uses the nukes on the beaches to clear fortifications right before we land. The USA then lands the troops into the radioactive fallout. Both Japan and the USA suffer massively great casualties than OTL. Stalin likely gets all of Korea as a united communist state. If he provides help to Mao, the KMT lose earlier.

If the Soviet declaration of war is enough to trigger the Japanese surrender, then atomic weapons are not used in WW2. Since the world has not seen the horror of the weapons, the world is more likely to use them in the future. By the mid-1960, nuclear weapons have been used by a nuclear power.

Edit: Fixed 1916 date typo.
 
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Assuming a delay of 6 months at start, means 6 months delay of available weapons, then the first is available in March 46. The USA then invades southern Japan in October 1946. The USA suffers massive casualties, and looks for ways to reduce losses on the planed spring landings near Tokyo. The USA likely uses the nukes on the beaches to clear fortifications right before we land. The USA then lands the troops into the radioactive fallout. Both Japan and the USA suffer massively great casualties than OTL. Stalin likely gets all of Korea as a united communist state. If he provides help to Mao, the KMT lose earlier.

If the Soviet declaration of war is enough to trigger the Japanese surrender, then atomic weapons are not used in WW2. Since the world has not seen the horror of the weapons, the world is more likely to use them in the future. By the mid-1916, nuclear weapons have been used by a nuclear power.
Uh nukes have not been invented by 1916

That said I agree with you but will add a third possibility that Japan surrenders from being starved out and continuously bombed, both fire bombings and carrier planes strafing anything that moves
 
Assuming a delay of 6 months at start, means 6 months delay of available weapons, then the first is available in March 46. The USA then invades southern Japan in October 1946. The USA suffers massive casualties, and looks for ways to reduce losses on the planed spring landings near Tokyo. The USA likely uses the nukes on the beaches to clear fortifications right before we land. The USA then lands the troops into the radioactive fallout. Both Japan and the USA suffer massively great casualties than OTL. Stalin likely gets all of Korea as a united communist state. If he provides help to Mao, the KMT lose earlier.

If the Soviet declaration of war is enough to trigger the Japanese surrender, then atomic weapons are not used in WW2. Since the world has not seen the horror of the weapons, the world is more likely to use them in the future. By the mid-1960, nuclear weapons have been used by a nuclear power.

Edit: Fixed 1916 date typo.

Surely the very use of nuclear weapons on Japan at this stage, prior to the actual invasion, would prompt a Japanese surrender instead of the continuation of the invasion? Would other PODs not be somehow required to force the Japanese to surrender at the Soviet Declaration of War also; they didn't surrender when they did so OTL afterall?
 
Let's say that the Manhattan Project is delayed for a few months, six months at the most, what are the ramifications of this? I'm not too interested of how it would be delayed, but could this prove to be a critical point in the pre-Cold War balance?

Would it delay the end of the war, if only by a few months? Would this provide enough time for the Soviets to advance through the entire Korean peninsula and then set up a unified Korea under Communism? Could Operation Olympic be initiated at any stage? Would this see the creation of separate occupation zones in Japan, i.e. Would the Soviets try to invade the Home Islands?

The division of Korea was part of the Yalta accords. The Soviets would, however, occupy more of China meaning the Mao takes over sooner. That might lead to an earlier Korean War.
 
The division of Korea was part of the Yalta accords. The Soviets would, however, occupy more of China meaning the Mao takes over sooner. That might lead to an earlier Korean War.

Was it? My knowledge of the Yalta Accords doesn't feature Korea at all. My reading about the division of Korea was that it was partitioned as a means of 'zones of occupation' until elections could be held to unite Korea. Even then, the division along the 38th parallel was made out of American fear that the Soviets were advancing so fast they might see a united Communist Korea - Japan's surrender allowed the Americans to ask the Soviets to stop at the 38th parallel and make the division there.
 
With the production of a bomb nowhere in sight as the war in Europe is wrapping up, will funding for the project even continue?
 
With the production of a bomb nowhere in sight as the war in Europe is wrapping up, will funding for the project even continue?

What if something had happened during the Project itself to delay it? Rather than starting late, some major incident in '43 or '44 caused the project to continue but at a slower pace than OTL.
 
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