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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   26707 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 20, 2023

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But the world did that with Atoms for Peace:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atoms_for_Peace

See also the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Countries like Japan have highly developed nuclear industry, but they don’t have nuclear weapons.

Japan is often said to be a "screwdriver's turn" away from possessing nuclear weapons

Because such latent capability is not prescribed by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, this is sometimes called the "Japan Option" (as a work-around to the treaty), as Japan is considered a "paranuclear" state, being a clear case of a country with complete technical prowess to develop a nuclear weapon quickly

But do they have the willpower to do so? This is the country that has first-hand experience with what nuclear weapons can do in the middle of a war, after all.

When they lose trust in the US as a protector, while faced with a stronger and aggressive China, the willpower will be there.

Countries like Japan have highly developed nuclear industry, but they don’t have nuclear weapons.

Because when America occupied them after the war, it made damn sure Japan would never again get any notions about being a military power. It's why their military is known as the Japanese Self-Defense Forces:

The Occupation was commanded by American general Douglas MacArthur, whose office was designated the Supreme Command for the Allied Powers (SCAP). In the initial phase of the Occupation, from 1945 to 1946, SCAP had pursued an ambitious program of social and political reform, designed to ensure that Japan would never again be a threat to world peace. Among other reforms, SCAP worked with Japanese leaders to completely disband the Japanese military. In addition, SCAP sought to unravel the wartime Japanese police state by breaking up the national police force into small American-style police forces controlled at the local level. SCAP also sought to empower previously marginalized groups that it believed would have a moderating effect on future militarism, legalizing the Communist and Socialist parties and encouraging the formation of labor unions. The crowning achievement of the first phase of the Occupation was the promulgation at SCAP's behest in 1947 of a new Constitution of Japan. Most famously Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution explicitly disavows war as an instrument of state policy and promises that Japan will never maintain a military.

Countries like Japan have highly developed nuclear industry, but they don’t have nuclear weapons.

The question is how many hours after wanting to have they will have them.

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