Did Japan help create the atomic bomb? No, that's not true: The U.S. program to develop the world's first atomic bomb under the code name Manhattan Project did not involve Japanese scientists, according to US historical documents.
The claim appeared on TikTok (archived here) on July 22, 2023, with a man named Hiroshi Iki, talking about modern technology developed by Japan in WWII, including the atomic bomb. In a clip translated from Japanese by Lead Stories staff, he says:
During the war, the Japanese government created airplanes, rockets, and robots. Japan was amazing compared to the rest of the world [...] Japan also helped create the atomic bomb. Japan is too smart for the world to see.
A caption reads:
Must know! The truth about Japan!
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Aug 23 15:01:02 2023 UTC)
Though Japan did have a secret nuclear development program during WWII, scientists did not progress beyond initial research findings to produce a model and lacked the resources to develop anything tangible. The country did develop technology during the war that led to the creation of machines such as the Zero fighter plane, aircraft carriers and the Sentoku class mega submarine, however, there is no evidence they produced technology related to the creation of the atomic bomb.
Those involved in the Manhattan Project concluded that, just like Germany, Japan lacked enriched uranium to develop a nuclear bomb. Furthermore, there were no Japanese scientists present in the Manhattan Project in the making of the atomic bomb.
According to historical archives, the forefront of scientists who developed the atomic bomb was J. Robert Oppenheimer and his associates at the Los Alamos laboratory, of which none were Japanese nationals.
