Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-01-21
Japan's Resources
BY Max Hill

Japan's larger, and vastly richer,
Fortress of Asia. Yet, if you could
shuttle the lands of the earth around
as you do pieces of jigsaw puzzle,
you would find that Hitler's empire
could be tucked away in far less
than half of the area that Japan now
rules.
Emperor Hirohito's domain is
larger than continental United
States, and he has more than he
can use of many vital war materials
which are so scarce here that our
scientists are on day and night shifts
trying to find practical substitutes.
1t is the richest natural area in the
world, and its resources transformed
Japan overnight from a poor rela-
ton among the world powers into an
empire that spreads from the cold of
the northern Pacific to the tropical
heat of the Indian ocean below the
equator. And a determined enemy
is welding this conquered region into
a war machine that, given time,
will dwarf the military might the
other end of the Axis has at its COM
mand.
The areas which Japan either cap
tured or just walked into and took
over, amount to some 100000
square miles and contain fabulous
quantities of war materials. All of
it was taken in the first few months
OF the war, and since that time we
have been able to recapture not
much more than 10000 square miles.
Germany does have one important
advantage over her Pacific ally: She
is looting a continent which already
was industrial; Japan's conquests,
for the most part, were in an area
predominantly agricultural and
primitive. Japan must fight a war
steadily growing more serious for
her, and at the same time build the
war plants to handle the plenty that
is there for the taking. She is some
what like the burglar trying to tote
OFT more than he can carry.
Plenty Of Oil.
AS to resources, let's take oil first,
as one of Japan's most necessary
raw materials. Before the war, ia
pan stored up millions of gallons of
the oil she bought from us and from
the Netherlands East Indies. Then
she struck, and you may be sure she
didn't start out empty-handed. To-
kyo's radio boasts that she now has
approximately 10 per cent of the In
dies oil wells back in production.
The Indies produce less than one
twenty-fifth of the oil flowing from
American wells, about 2,500, 000, 900
gallons each year. But Burma has
oil wells, too, and l am told by
sources l know are reliable that the
Japanese program for this year is to
store 100000 gallons of oil, just
put it away for the future. Even
so, they are at work at home, taking
100000 barrels of oil each year
from the Manchukuo shale fields,
extracting oil from coal, expert
menting with oil from sardines for
glycerine, and with oil from soya
beans, boiling pine-tree stumps for
another type of oil, and-most i'm
portant of al-building synthetic
oil plants.
The synthetic plants, which are
scattered throughout the empire,
are the big question mark in Japan's
oil production. Some of them use
German patents; others a process
invented by the Japanese them
selves. We have never been able
to locate all of them or find out how
much they are producing.
Rubber, Tin and Quinine.
Oil is only the beginning of the
riches of the Indies. This great re-
gion also produces one-third of the
worlds natural rubber; one-ffth of
the tin; 80 per cent of the quinine,
so valuable in tropical fighting; and
extensive deposits of nickel, bauxite
(from which aluminium is made),
manganese, gold, and silver.
But Japan can put all of these
riches in side pocket and forget
them, with the exception of the nick
ell on the island of Celebes, and look
with greedy eyes on the rest of the
conquered area.
Including the Indies, this empire
produces 98.8 per cent of the worlds
natural rubber and 80 per cent of
the worlds tin. Two million tons of
ore high in iron content are dug
out of the Malaga mines each year,
and the Japanese are now supposed
to be busy on plant to smelt this
ore near Singapore.
We read frequently of the difficult
ties Japan has with her shipping,
but you never hear any mention Of
the American tonnage it takes to
bring tin from Bolivia, halfway
down the west coast Of South Amer
lea, and inland, a much longer haul
than the Japanese have.
The enemy has so per cent Of the
worlds tin; we have about Is per
cent, which is what Bolivia pro-
duces, and by agreement we have
to split most Of that with England.
Do you wonder, now, at the almost
desperate pleas Of the government
that we save our used tin cans?