What If Japan Had Succeeded in Developing an Atomic Bomb during WWII?

What if the Japanese had succeeded in developing a nuclear weapon at the end of World War II, but were stopped before deploying it? But the bomb is still hidden. At the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.

That’s the premise for The Gate: Shadow Warriors. I didn’t invent this out of thin air. I was wandering the stacks at the Fort Campbell post library one day and saw a book titled Japan’s Secret War. In the nonfiction section. I used to know the Dewey Decimal System pretty damn well. You know, before the internet. I’m still a big believer in reading books for research rather than googling stuff. Why? Because you need to know the question to google something. Reading a book raised questions you hadn’t thought of. Like this one.

The author laid out some interesting facts in this book. As the Third Reich was reduced to rubble, a U- Boat attempted to make the arduous journey to Japan. Its cargo? Scientists, enriched uranium, and two Japanese naval officers. The Japanese worked extensively on their biological and chemical weapons. Unit 731 in Manchuria was infamous and largely ignored by history. I use Unit 731 in several of my books particularly The Gate.

OSS documents indicate that Japan’s nuclear weapons program was also headquartered in Manchuria. Which the author speculates is why the Russians were in such a rush to seize that area near the end of the war.

What if the Japanese succeeded? What if they detonated one bomb in Manchuria at the end of the war to cover their tracks and the second bomb disappeared on board a submarine heading across the Pacific. Toward the United States? Toward the city where the 1st meeting of the United Nations will be held. San Francisco.

That nuclear weapon has been lost and forgotten about at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge since the end of the war. Lake, a covert operative for the US, is now on a race against rogue militia terrorists to find and destroy this weapon in order to prevent a nuclear disaster of epic proportions.

This book mixes a modern day thriller with uncovering history. The horrors of Unit 731; the Yakuza; North Korean commandoes and home-grown terrorists. All combine in this action-packed story of what could be.

The Shadow Warrior Series is on my web site in fiction. These are standalone titles and don’t need to be read in order.