A chat tangent about German-Japanese wartime cooperation distinguishes transmitting technical data from transferring a usable technology. Drawings could support reverse engineering, but samples and hardware also mattered, while a submarine could carry only a limited cargo over a very dangerous route. I-29 completed one voyage from Germany to Japan but was sunk on a later mission, and U-234 did not complete its intended transfer. Much of what traveled east was unloaded in Southeast Asia rather than reaching Japan itself. An exchange agreement produces little combat power unless the payload survives the route and reaches the engineers and factories able to use it.
Notable Point · 2:02:39-2:10:45
Submarine technology exchange needed more than plans
German-Japanese wartime exchange was constrained by the need to move physical samples in low-capacity submarines through a hazardous route, not merely send drawings.