There is a strong suggestion that Japan was being fed nuclear technology by the Germans throughout 1943-5. The capture of German supply submarines, and their contents, by the allies after the German surrender goes some way to making this look likely.

With the capture of U234 (Ironic name) There are reports that there was not only 560kg of unenriched uranium (a fact not reviled till after the end of the cold war) but also enough enriched uranium 234 to have helped build one of the two atomic devices dropped on Japan.

Hitlers motives for supplying the Japanese thus was to straighten them and distract the allies in the west allowing him more time to deal with the Soviets.

Now here's a question. If the Japanese had made a bomb, (the problem for the Japanese was not so much how to enrich uranium but rather getting their hands on enough of the stuff to make a bomb) what would the allies have done?

How would the Soviets have reacted to nuclear powers on either side of their country? Would the US have made nice with the Japanese so hem the USSR in?

Depends on the timing. If Japan responded to Hiroshima and Nagasaki with an atom bomb over Seattle or Los Angeles, the USA would have dropped ten thousand nerve gas canisters on Japan and smoked every last one of them out. We were on the verge of doing so anyway.

At the very least Kyoto and the Emperor would have bought it. By which point you have a fanatical Japan hell bent on revenge no matter the consequences... And I personally have to disagree with the Axis and Allies thing - especially in Dest.25's case, this is DEFINITELY a case of too much Hearts of Iron... I should post my maps here, when I managed to get Yamashita to take over Yugoslavia with only 4 mountain divisions... now that's Alternative history for you...

I think the thing is, Japanese victories in both World Wars need to be considered in perspective. In most cases where they won fabulous victories they were up against Colonial troops, local troops or undersupplied westerners. I've been reading recently about the Japanese campaign on Guadalcanal, and it really sounds like a 19th Century army taking on a 20th Century one. In the first engagement on the island the U.S. Marines lost 35 men. The IJA lost 800. It didn't get much better than this throughout. I'm not underrating 'Japanese Spirit' here, just pointing out that a lot of times it was only this that kept them winning...