News for December 26, 2006
Some news/links from the last few days:
-Ho, ho, ho! Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like some executions!
-In his birthday speech, Japan’s Emperor Akihito has said the practice of mourning Japan’s war dead can help younger generations better understand the past. He said he hoped facts about World War II would be correctly conveyed so the suffering his generation experienced would never be repeated. Mutant Frog takes a look at this story and the new patriotism in education law in his latest update.
-Friction is emerging within the Liberal Democratic Party over the issue of so-called comfort women who purportedly were forced to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers on the Korean Peninsula and other parts of Asia during World War II. A voluntary group set up by LDP lawmakers to study what should be taught in schools on the subject of national history held a subpanel meeting Friday to discuss the comfort women issue for the first time.
-Mainichi has an article on the albino boar that is all the rage with photographers now that we are entering the year of the boar.
-Foreign Dispatches discusses the Secret of Juri Ueno’s Appeal.
-What food would Japanese people would most like to eat at a Christmas party?
-Mainichi’s WaiWai reports that Akie Abe’s cookies might be a flop.
-The top 5 x-mas music videos for otaku.
-Softbank’s recent cellphone service commercial encourages bullying, according to some.
-Uh oh, Japanese noodles at Chinese stores have been found to contain the banned sweetener stevioside.
-A new government document has revealed that Japan will require 3 to 5 years to produce a nuclear warhead. So much for the “matter of days” thing.
-Some words on Yasukuni Shrine from Trans-Pacific Radio.
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The Problem of building an A-bomb is probably more a matter of getting the material in the required quantities than building the actual bomb. It still shouldn’t exceed a few weeks, except they let some politicians discuss it (¬_¬)
I don’t think acquiring the material will be a problem for Japan, considering they have plenty of nuclear reactors. Constructing the required centrifuges won’t be such a big problem I think.
“Japan will need at least three to five years to test produce small nuclear warheads”
What do they mean with “small”? Weapons with a small yield? I’ve read somewhere that ’small’ nuclear weapons design is America’s most closely guarded nuclear secret. They are far more difficult to construct than larger yield weapons. Low yield weapons are far more useful than city-leveling ones I imagine.
If this isn’t what the article had in mind, I think it’s bullshit. Japan surely has no lack of technical expertise and know-how to create a rudimentary nuclear weapon. If India, Pakistan and North-Korea can do it (countries we would considerd to be developping countries), I’m sure Japan can do it without too much problems. And much faster too.
It also seemed like a pretty huge jump from what experts had been previously claiming: a few weeks to a few months. Perhaps the government intentionally leaked the documents so that it would make Japan’s neighbors less afraid about the possibility of a nuclear Japan in the immediate future? Or perhaps they want everyone to know that they are serious about pursuing nuclear weapons, but they are giving themselves a very very conservative time table so they wouldn’t embarass themselves if they failed to produce a nuke in less than year.
Merry Christmas James!
Hey that white boar lives in Beppu, just like me!
I have a suggestion. Perhaps you should put _target after your links so that the JapanProbe page remains open when we jump other links
James, when I first saw the article this morning that’s what I thought – it simply isn’t true – it has to have some other motive. I doubt that Japan’s neighbors would even buy it. It took the Project X team less than the time they’re projecting, and that was from scratch.
More likely, it’s for domestic consumption. Assuring the populace that ‘we can’t do it.’ But really, I don’t know.