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In Japan and South Korea there is deepening concern over the reliability of long-time American security guarantees – whether the U.S. will come to their aid in the event of a war. This has been turbo-charged by Donald Trump’s tough treatment of traditional U.S. allies, which has some in Tokyo and Seoul calling for a reassessment of their non-nuclear policies.

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[-] grte@lemmy.ca 87 points 1 week ago

Hey Canada...We should be thinking about this, also.

[-] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 20 points 1 week ago

I've been saying that since 2008 as a teen but man was that an unpopular opinion. We're a very naive country imo.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I wish but.. Do you think they won't invade us at the whiff of nuclear armament?

[-] grte@lemmy.ca 34 points 1 week ago

I don't trust them not to invade us without that protection, anyways.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago

Agreed. I just think that would make it certain.

If we could get nukes secretly I'd be all up for it.

[-] grte@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

If Japan and South Korea go through with this perhaps we could purchase some from them (or elsewhere, UK, France, hell, even China) to cover us while we work on a domestic program.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Buy a loaded submarine on the hush-hush and sail it to Vancouver? I like it.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 week ago

Building nukes is like unionizing; ideally you don't go public until you already have your nukes/union

[-] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

Gonna be tough to hide when all our computer systems run on Microsoft, Google, or Amazon platforms.

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Do what isreal did and lie about it while building one

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I don't think we could realistically hide it from their agents but yeah, totally. That'll probably be the way if our gov't decides to do it.

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[-] myfunnyaccountname@lemmy.zip 54 points 1 week ago

After the UN ramble yesterday, no one should rely on Trump and the US for anything. Every country should be looking for alternatives to US guarantees.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I didn't watch and haven't seen anything on it. Was it Normal 2025 Trump bad, or something extra special?

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 46 points 1 week ago

You know who really needs the bomb? Canada needs the bomb. It has a hostile authoritarian military superpower on its border with 10x the population, hostile trade relations, and a stated intention by national leaders to invade and conquer core Canadian territories. Canada is in the exact situation where a nuclear deterrent is most justifiable. If nukes are ever justifiable, they're justifiable for small powers facing potential invasion by aggressive larger ones.

Canada needs the bomb.

[-] Smokeless7048@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

That's the difference between Obama's stance of "we won't use the bomb if you don't have it" and trump/Putin's "we won't take you seriously if you don't have the bomb"

One encourages disarmormebt. The other armorment

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[-] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 1 week ago

This is going to result in some really confused Akira spinoffs

[-] redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago

Oh God(zilla)

[-] oce@jlai.lu 5 points 1 week ago

Evangelion 2048, the Angels are Trump shaped.

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[-] frezik 30 points 1 week ago

I can't blame them for wanting to do it. Same with a whole lot of other countries right now.

I'd also like to point out that this will necessitate a new round of nuclear weapons tests. We're giving up on a hard won success:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel#Present_day

World anthropogenic background radiation, caused by atmospheric nuclear testing, peaked at a level 0.11 mSv/yr (4%) above the natural 2.40 mSv/yr. It began to fall in 1963, when the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was enacted, and by 2008 it had decreased to only 0.005 mSv/yr above natural levels. This has made special low-background steel no longer necessary for most radiation-sensitive uses, as new steel now has a low enough radioactive signature.

[-] Pringles@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago

Well, France or the UK could also share their technology, or even Pakistan or India. I imagine it's easier to buy the technology from an ally than developing it from scratch.

[-] frezik 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Eh. There's nothing too crazy about developing from scratch. The hard part is generating your first batch of enriched uranium. A physics grad student could probably design a basic nuke. The US actually ran a test to that effect decades ago; a couple of physicists with no specialization in the nuclear side of things, and using only publicly available material, were able to design an implosion-type device. The expert consensus was that it would have worked just fine.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

To get the uranium for the first bomb, you can always do what Israel did - have your spies literally steal it from US nuclear facilities.

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[-] F_State@midwest.social 29 points 1 week ago

As an American, I don't trust Trump to come to America's aid. I'd be sweeting bullets if I was Korea and Japan.

[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 week ago

Well the US did promise to come to Ukraine's aid if they gave up their nukes...and here we are.

[-] F_State@midwest.social 5 points 1 week ago

If Trump had still been president in 2022, I highly doubt we would have come to Ukraine's aid in any substantial way.

[-] rezad@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

it seems that only my country (iran) having nukes is bad.

[-] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 22 points 1 week ago

Wrong Abrahamic DLC is all it takes.

[-] rezad@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

jewish isis already has, so....

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[-] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Apples & oranges honestly. Best would be no one resorts to that strategy. 2nd best is extreme regimes - especially vindicative and religious ones - don’t have such weapons.

[-] frezik 12 points 1 week ago

Honestly, I trust Iran to behave like a rational actor a whole lot more than I trust Trump. Yes, they're run by religious nutjobs, but they have been proven to show some restraint on international policy.

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[-] rezad@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I mean I am sure usa germany and japan are the most peace loving countries in the last century. unlike iran that literally didnt start a war in that last 200 years.

sorry.

from my perspective my country needs nukes the most of the "Candidates"

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[-] BakerBagel@midwest.social 16 points 1 week ago

My understanding is that Japan is de facto an nuclear armed state, they simply haven't made an warheads. They have the all the necessary technology and fuel enrichment, so they could quickly arm if they thought it would be necessary in the near future.

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[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago

Japan having nukes is gonna be PR nightmare given their imperialistic history lol.

As for South Korea and ROC/Taiwan, sure thing. UK ot France should sell them some nuclear armed submarines lol.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

what if they launch them out of gundams? that seems like it wouldn't be quite so much of a PR nightmare

[-] Mirshe@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

No no, the nuclear-armed Gundam doesn't come until after the war with Zeon.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

okay how about a naval cruiser that can also turn into a space ship

[-] theneverfox@pawb.social 7 points 1 week ago

I mean, not really. Barely anyone is alive who remembers these things viscerally, and people don't pay attention to history at all, if they even know the broad strokes

[-] F_State@midwest.social 4 points 1 week ago

There's still alot of animosity from South Korea towards Japan. The threat from China and American unreliability has driven them together politically but the animosity still remains on an individual level.

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[-] mlg@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Japan actually has the technology and know-how to rapidly spin up a nuclear weapons program because they were already doing it before signing up on their non-nuclear policies with the US.

The real question is which country is going to be the first to actually jump ship. I'm fairly certain like 95% of the UN is just going to wait out Trump's term and hope the next president will undo all his insane plans, because no one wants to lose longstanding ties with the US, even as the rug pull of 70+ years of American influence going under gets closer to reality.

[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Don't be silly, the US will be happy to sell weapons to South Korea and Japan. Also, they will sell to whoever attacks them!

[-] baduhai@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 week ago

Oh ffs, we don't need more nuclear powers.

[-] Baguette 10 points 1 week ago

The only options for nuclear weapons are none at all, or everyone with one.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where they exist, and as such, you cannot trust enemies or even allies to have good conscience. If the only way to guarantee your country's safety against a country with nuclear weapons is your own, then this headline was inevitable.

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this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2025
368 points (100.0% liked)

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