The majority of the crew are not trained to that level of expertise.
I was one. (AN/UYK-20 computer tech, USN.) I could troubleshoot the machine I went to school for. I could show them the stash of spare parts and tools, and how to use them. But there’s no way I could tell them what they could do to “upgrade” the TDC to make it more accurate, faster, or whatever.
You need advanced electronic engineers for that. Your typical ship won’t have more than a couple of guys who have a passion for that kind of stuff, and pushed themselves to learn specialised things far beyond what the Navy considered as sufficient, and what the Navy offered as training.
Nuclear reactors is not a new idea. The rough idea for them came about in 1938/9 (?). Japan was having quality control problems for the metals used in their (then state of the art) aircraft frame and engine components, and you expect them to be able to build a workable reactor in a decade? The war was lost in four…
I believe that there would be incremental increments in the current technology, and bigger improvements in operational use [tactics] of that gear (like proper fighter direction techniques, convoy and sub hunting pointers), possibly some streamlining of policy for a more unified command cohesivness (the IJA and IJN command structures were too divided), industrial managment and resource allocation, and so on, but even so, unless the Japanese Army is marching down Pennsylvania avenue, the US has time on it’s side. It had ten times (I think thats the ratio) the industrial GDP that Japan did. Quantity has a quality all of it’s own.
Perhaps you are correct on the amount of technological know how, I’ll defer to your experience but just note that even a couple of guys could do wonders improving historical Japanese radar, it could hardly get much worse.
I don’t disagree with you that Japan would still be buried by an avalanche of American production and lose the war, I said up thread that by expending all ordnance the ship could win Japan a battle or two, but would still lose the war. I’m not even sure if its radar would do much for spotting the Americans in future battles, historically the Japanese usually spotted the Americans first in carrier battles as their carrier aircraft and land based search planes had greater ranges than American ones. The combinedfleet.com page that I cited for the results of a reverse Midway also has some sobering comparisons of both prewar and wartime production capabilities of Japan vis a vis the US.
I hope I did not seem too abusive. I did not watch the Zipang series (although I did read the aforementioned Axis of Time trilogy).
You could hand Yamamoto a working SH-60 helicopter (and the pilot plus some maintenance guys), but I don’t believe that they would be able to build a comparable model within 20-25 years. They had some autogyro by '44 (this), used for convoy escort, but I think we are talking about fundamental transformation of not just an aircraft, but also the industry (for the funky composite materials and quality controls) and doctrine.
I cannot provide cites to base my opinion on, and I could be overestimating the difficulty in reverse engineering the stuff.
I’d be wildly speculating on my own part insisting there would be more technical knowledge amongst the crew than there may actually be, and you have actual experience to base your opinion on, that’s all I meant.
That seems highly arguable. For starters, I’d have to point out that the SH 60 had it’s first flight in 1979, 37 years after Midway. I would argue that a working prototype delivered to you, with maintenance manuals, and presumably at least a few crew members with engineering degrees, should easily see that 37 year development time dropped to 25 years.
Bear in mind that a lot of the delays in research for all sectors come down to you having to find your way in the dark. You think an idea will work, but can’t say for sure, and more often than not you will actually find obstacles that make you backtrack or look for workarounds. If you actually have not just proof that something works, but an actual working example to tinker with, as well as informed people on just how it all works, you have an immense advantage.
And being able to deliver a few hundred testimonials on just how well things work out on the current plan should certainly be a good step in persuading the emperor that it’s time to change tactics
So, you’ve kind of got two main options:
Use the military advantage of the modern ship for a few initial engagements, then revert to a tactical role until such time as a non replaceable part breaks.
Persuade the emperor that him and his nation are screwed on the current heading, negotiate the best terms you can to switch sides, and then hide the ship and crew with your best research scientists with the idea being that in 10 or 20 years you’ll have a technical edge that your enemies cannot argue with.
Given Japan had trouble even copying the DB601 engine made by Germany in the 1930’s, I wouldnt be so sure of that. Even when they had the plans and it wasnt a huge leap in technology, they had trouble.
And once Japan had declared war they were pretty much stuffed, anything less than unconditional surrender after Pearl Harbour was probably a non-starter. You get into some pretty amazing conspiracy ideas to successfully make use of it for the next 10-20 years without being detected.
