60 Years On, A Reflection on Energy

Japan’s oft-sensational Mainichi Shinbun has some pretty stunning pictures from the last years of World War II and the aftermath. While people tend to get pretty emotional over this topic, the pictures give a pretty balanced picture of the Japanese experience, reflecting both the utter tyrrany and total devestation that was the Japanese experience before and after the end of the war.

Looking through the pictures, two in particular brought home what to me was the true nature of the fight between Japan and the US: a war over resources.

Children gather wood to use for wood-fuel vehicles in this 1941 photo. Civilians were banned from using gasoline in 1941 as it was needed for the war effort.

Schoolboys gather pine-tree roots to use for as aviation fuel in this 1945 photo.

No gasoline? I’ve read about coal-fueled trucks in North Korea, but vehicles that run on wood? Planes that run on pine roots?! This is how desperate Japan was in the final stages of war: they had no energy and were desperate for something, anything to keep the country moving.

Of course, energy was the reason Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in the first place. After a decade-long war in Manchuria and the China coast, in which western public opinion strongly sided with the Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government, Britain and the United States imposed a scrap metal boycott on Japan. This was followed by a freeze of Japanese assets, the closing of the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping, and finally, an oil boycott.

The oil boycott was an enormous threat to Japan. With few reserves and high dependence on foreign oil, namely Rising Sun (the Japanese affiliate of Royal Dutch/Shell) and Stanvac, a joint venture of US oil companies, Japan’s war machine was in danger of shutting down competely unless it could obtain new supplies in Southeast Asia. Japan, a country with no oil resources, had a choice: back out of China or escalate. They chose the later, hoping to hit the US hard enough and get them to accept that Japan was too formidable an enemy to defeat.

Energy was Japan’s Achilles’ Heel. In the end, despite the utter devastation, Japan wasn’t defeated—it was starved. In the final phases of the war, warships were sent off to battle without enough fuel for the journey home. The country came to a standstill.

In truth, this is how wars were won for much of the 20th century. Instead of defeating the enemy, starve them—cut off their energy supply lines. In many ways, the same is true today, and is one of many reasons why keeping our oil supplies diverse and secure is so important.