It's not hard to make small improvements. The problem as already mentioned above is that the IJN needed better engines to give themselves much better aircraft.
The obvious low hanging fruit was the plan to replace the B5N2 by the B6N and to replace the D3A1 with the D4Y. As a result of this...
There is some information at http://warshipprojects.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/warship-projects-4-0/ and the new site is http://forum.worldofwarships.eu/index.php?/forum/86-warship-projects/ but unfortunately the old content seems to be lost (AFAIK).
I agree that the effect of the sanctions would have been very severe even if Japan had been self sufficient in oil. However, there is a huge difference between those things that Japan could obtain by talking over Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies and other goods. The argument within Japan...
Somewhere in another universe, the art history forum has established a new what if section. The first post imagines how the terrible distorting influence of the famously effective critic and polemicist Adolf Hitler on Twentieth Century painting could have been remove if only the Vienna...
Firstly a welcome to Carl to this forum!
While reading through the Wikipedia link, I noticed that Japan had purchased a licence for the Mondragón. Oddly the Japanese Arisaka 6.5 x 50mm had already been used for the Fedorov Avtomat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedorov_Avtomat. Interestingly...
This thread seems to throw up a few basic questions. The first is whether the DB 603 could have been a widely available and reliable engine in 1943. The second is related question is why the RLM did not make more effort to ensure that it was widely available and reliable. I think that the reason...
I suspect that the turbosuperchargers of the Fw190C had the same problem as the jets and the Jumo 004A in particular in that they needed nickel, cobalt or chromium to withstand the high temperature exhaust gasses.
What was possible was a Fw190 powered by a mechanically supercharged DB 603...
It may be interesting to look at the case of Sato Ichiro as discussed in “Japan's Sea Lane Security, 1940-2004: A Matter Of Life And Death?” by Euan Graham on pages 83-4...
Naturally they spent WW1 doing boring jobs like escorting convoys because Jellicoe didn't believe they would be any good in a real battle. It allows idlers like me to ask trick questions http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=77140&start=720#p1295647
It is not completely hopeless. There might be a tipping point if the Italians can send enough aircraft, submarines and MTBs to make it very difficult for the British to move merchant ships through the Red Sea. If the British cannot send merchant ships through the Red Sea, they cannot fight a war...
There was an interesting example of Japanese technology not being adopted by America and then a similar design being independently discovered and being adopted. This is Optical landing system or meatball http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_landing_system. The system currently used by navies has...
The reason that the policies associated with Taisho Democracy were abandoned was a Japanese perception that they had failed combined with military opposition. The principle failure was economic with very low growth during the 1920s. Obviously perceived Western hostility such as the rejection of...