Hello everyone,
It has been said that Japan imported most of their oil, as well as other resources which was a main reason for the Japanese expansion, but what I would like to know about it this. What was Japan's resources like for aluminum? Were they able to make or process aluminum or did they have to import that as well? I personally do not recall hearing about aluminum factories like there were in the US for example. DId the Japanese have the capabilities to make or smelt aluminum?
Japan's aluminum resources at the start of WWII
Re: Japan's aluminum resources at the start of WWII
They were very heavily reliant upon US imports.
Re: Japan's aluminum resources at the start of WWII
The Japanese imported bauxite from Manchuria, China and Palau. Later they began taking bauxite out of the Netherlands East Indies. The Japanese had several refineries for processing bauxite into alumina but production was very small compared to that of the U.S. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey's The Effects of Strategic Bombing on Japan's War Economy says that the Japanese were able to satisfy the aircraft industries' demand for aluminum into 1945.
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Re: Japan's aluminum resources at the start of WWII
Some additional info FWIW:
Japanese documents (from Hattori, 1953 to Nakamura, 1994) record that by 1944 the transportation of bauxite from the chief Southern Area sources (BINTAN & JOHORE) was severely impacted, and..."a sharp reduction in the supply of aluminum for aircraft and other uses was...inevitable."
Their attempts to compensate with aluminum from China & Manchukuo + domestic collection of coins (!) were not very successful at all.
The chief cause, of course, was their severe shipping losses, which could never be made up adequately. Shipments from China/Manchuria were decreased as well as those from the Southern Area.
In 1941 the Japanese estimated they would be able to transport ~400,000 metric tons of bauxite for production in 1942, but only actually transported 323,000 MT. In 1943 they transported 792,000 MT; in 1944 565,000 MT. It appears that they may have only been able to transport ~320,000 MT from the KO Area (of the Southern Area) in 1945...and expected they could produce roughly 35,000 MT of Aluminum in the first half of 1945.
So, production followed a similar downward curve after mid-1944. For example, they planned to produce 185,000 MT of aluminum that year, but fell far below that figure, at about 120,000 MT.
Compulsory military production--formalized in Nov. 1943 with the establishment of the Munitions Ministry--was enacted too late for the total war that Japan had brought upon herself. Its greatest priority was a/c production, but production target numbers were unrealistic & not achievable. They were, however, able to approach ~70%-75% of their target numbers, I think.
Although Japanese a/c plants did a great deal of expanding well into the war, after mid-1944 "exhaustion began to set in" and production of all types of munitions & armaments dropped off.
A large discrepancy between number of a/c fuselages constructed & engines built did not help either.
The numbers in fuselages/engines as follows:
1941-- 6,174/13,022
1942--10,185/18,498
1943--20,028/35,368
1944--26,507/40,274
1945--5,823/6,509*
*Source: Okazaki Bunkun (ed.) Kihon Kokuryoku Dotai Soran (Handbook of Basic National strength), Institute of Research on National Economy. (1953)
HTH
Japanese documents (from Hattori, 1953 to Nakamura, 1994) record that by 1944 the transportation of bauxite from the chief Southern Area sources (BINTAN & JOHORE) was severely impacted, and..."a sharp reduction in the supply of aluminum for aircraft and other uses was...inevitable."
Their attempts to compensate with aluminum from China & Manchukuo + domestic collection of coins (!) were not very successful at all.
The chief cause, of course, was their severe shipping losses, which could never be made up adequately. Shipments from China/Manchuria were decreased as well as those from the Southern Area.
In 1941 the Japanese estimated they would be able to transport ~400,000 metric tons of bauxite for production in 1942, but only actually transported 323,000 MT. In 1943 they transported 792,000 MT; in 1944 565,000 MT. It appears that they may have only been able to transport ~320,000 MT from the KO Area (of the Southern Area) in 1945...and expected they could produce roughly 35,000 MT of Aluminum in the first half of 1945.
So, production followed a similar downward curve after mid-1944. For example, they planned to produce 185,000 MT of aluminum that year, but fell far below that figure, at about 120,000 MT.
Compulsory military production--formalized in Nov. 1943 with the establishment of the Munitions Ministry--was enacted too late for the total war that Japan had brought upon herself. Its greatest priority was a/c production, but production target numbers were unrealistic & not achievable. They were, however, able to approach ~70%-75% of their target numbers, I think.
Although Japanese a/c plants did a great deal of expanding well into the war, after mid-1944 "exhaustion began to set in" and production of all types of munitions & armaments dropped off.
A large discrepancy between number of a/c fuselages constructed & engines built did not help either.
The numbers in fuselages/engines as follows:
1941-- 6,174/13,022
1942--10,185/18,498
1943--20,028/35,368
1944--26,507/40,274
1945--5,823/6,509*
*Source: Okazaki Bunkun (ed.) Kihon Kokuryoku Dotai Soran (Handbook of Basic National strength), Institute of Research on National Economy. (1953)
HTH
Re: Japan's aluminum resources at the start of WWII
Excellent thank you all very much for the information.