WV Coal Member Meeting 2024 1240x200 1 1

Japan, 1945: 315th Bomb Wing Timeline

 
Germany wasn't the only Axis power making oil from coal in WWII.
 
An excerpt:
 
"23/24 July (1945 - JtM) - (20th Air Force Mission 283, 315th Bomb Wing Mission 9) Seventy-two 315th BW B-29's bomb the coal liquefaction plant at the Imperial Fuel Industry Company at Ube."
 
Tough, very tough, to find other references abut the Japanese effort - perhaps, to be optimistic, because of language/translation difficulties after the war, whatever.
 
But, we searched specifically for references to Japan's efforts because Joe's father - you remember Big Arnie, certainly - was a Marine Corps combatant in the Pacific Theater. He insisted, during the 1970's oil crisis, that we, WV, the US, should be making our oil from coal. He knew his enemies during the War had been doing it. Japan's coal-to-oil refinery was a strategic bombing target, just as were Germany's.
 
We were focused, back then, on destroying coal-to-oil refineries. We should be focused, now, on building them.