pdf - WHALE

(1) Two Japanese ollicers; 7
(2) 80 gold-lined cylinders containing 560 kilograms of uranium
oxide; 8
(3) Several wooden cases or barrels full of "water";
( 4 ) I nfrared proximity fuses;
(5) Dr. Heinz Schlicke, inventor of the fuses.
When the U-234 was being loaded with its cargo in Germany for
the outward voyage, its radio operator, Wolfgang Hirschfeld,
observed the two Japanese officers writing "U 235 " on the paper
wrapping of the cylinders prior to their being loaded into the
submarine. 9 Needless to say, this observation has called forth the
full range of debunking techniques normally applied by skeptics to
UFO sightings: low sun angles, poor lighting, distance was to great
to see clearly, etc. etc. This is no surprise, for if Hirschfeld saw
what he saw, then the enormous implications were obvious.
The use of gold lined cylinders is explainable by the fact that
uranium, a highly corrosive metal, is easily contaminated if it comes
into contact with other unstable elements. Gold, whose radioactive
shielding properties are as great as lead, is also, unlike lead, a highly
pure and stable element, and is therefore the element of choice
when storing or shipping highly enriched and pure uranium for
long periods of time, such as a voyage. 10 Thus, the uranium oxide
on board the U-234 was highly enriched uranium, and most likely,
highly enriched U 235 , the last stage, perhaps, before being reduced
to weapons grade or to metalicization for a bomb (if it was already
in weapons grade purity). Indeed, if the Japanese officers' labels on
7
The two officers were Air Force Colonel Genzo Shosi, an engineer, and
Navy Captain Hideo Tomonaga. When the captain of the U-234 made known
his intentions to surrender the submarine, which was then en route to Japan
after the German surrender, the two Japanese officers committed hari-kiri, and
were buried at sea with full military honors by the Germans.
8
Hydrick's comment on the U-234's cargo manifest explains why the U-
234 was off limits to the American press following its surrender: "Whoever
first read the entry and understood the frightening capabilities and potential
purpose of uranium must have been stunned by the entry." (op. cit, p. 7)
9
Hydrick, op. cit., p. 5.
10
Ibid., p. 8.
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