Pearl Harbor and oil war

Oil. Oil. Oil. Oil. Oil.

The Book:

Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
By Ian W. Toll
W. W. Norton & Company
2012

The Talk:

Ian Toll’s Pacific Crucible tells the story of America’s first six months of war in the Pacific, from the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 8th, 1941) to the Battle of Midway (June 6th, 1942). It’s the first book in a trilogy, and its nearly 500 pages go in depth into the personalities, planning, and combat experiences of the Americans and Japanese who fought in World War II.

There’s far too much material to summarize, though there are a few major themes. For example, Toll shows how the nation of Japan radicalized itself by creating essentially a decades-long media bubble that reinforced and enflamed its sense of racial superiority, belief that they were disrespected by the world, grievance against state officials as traitors, obsession with male martial honor, and the merging of political and religious identity. Buddhist teachings were reinterpreted to support violence:

When Japan fought, declared the Buddhist scholar Daisetsu T. Suzuki, it was an “expression of Buddha’s compassion.” … Acknowledging that Zen taught “the gospel of love and mercy,” Suzuki asserted that the true practitioner of Zen, drawn into war for reasons unrelated to his own ego, was not responsible for the behavior of the sword he wielded. “For it is really not he but the sword itself that does the killing. He had no desire to do harm to anybody, but the enemy appears and makes himself a victim. It is as though the sword performs automatically its function of justice, which is the function of mercy.”

Government leaders who weren’t extreme enough were bullied and intimidated by political gangs with open calls for assassination until the only leaders left were completely passive.

All these factors blinded Japanese leaders and citizens in the lead up to war and compounded failures during the war. A defeat at sea would be broadcast as a victory back home. This kind of delusion was ultimately unsustainable. It would take many years (and much suffering and death) to break the fever.

In America we often wring our hands over which year of Nazism are we currently repeating, but this book made me wonder if pre-World War II Japan might be a better analogue for our times.

War in oil

But the images from the book that will stick with me forever are the descriptions of the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I was only vaguely familiar with the facts of the Pearl Harbor attack, but Toll conveys just how oily it was:

Millions of gallons of oil had erupted into the harbor from the torpedoes battleships. “People who have never seen this at sea cannot imagine what oil is like once it is exposed to cool seawater,” said Private Cory. “It becomes a globlike carpet about six inches thick, gelatinous.”

Sailors escaping the ships attempted to swim through this thick mat of congealed oil. It clogged their noses, ears, burned in their eyes. Sailors described “the bitter taste of fuel oil in the mouth.” Rescued men would vomit up oil.

Those who made it back to barracks would attempt to shower, but the oil had gone into their pores so deep it was impossible to get off completely.

Soap and water did not do the trick—it was necessary to scrub the oil-stained skin with alcohol or gasoline. Some men went so far as to actually bathe in gasoline; but even those who managed to remove the visible stains complained for weeks afterward that they were coated head to foot in a thin film of oil, that their eyes smarted from the gasoline, or that they were plagued by intense headaches and blurred vision.

And the oil on the water burned “in immense columns of greasy, black, evil-smelling smoke.” Everywhere was the smell of burning oil. When seaplanes attempted to take off to defend the island, their windshields were splashed with oil, making it impossible to see. When the dead were prepared for burial, oil seeped out of the coffins.

When Admiral Charles Nimitz arrived to take command of the American fleet on Christmas morning 1941, weeks after the attack, his plane touched down on oil, and his first smell was the “whiff of fuel oil and burning ships, a stench so all-pervading that men stationed at Pearl had ceased to notice it.” The boat he took to shore was completely covered in oil, inside and out.

War for oil

Oil itself was a factor in the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor.

Prior to the war, Japan was dependent on the U.S. for 80% of its oil. For this reason, Admiral Yamamoto argued that war with the U.S. should be avoided at all costs. When Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, forming an alliance with Germany and Italy, it essentially started the countdown for war. The U.S. let their oil trade agreement with Japan expire, then cut off aviation fuel exports to Japan, along with other material. Toll writes of the Japanese:

As much as they might have liked to procrastinate, to wait and watch, the men who ruled the country did not believe they had the luxury of time. The oil embargo amounted to a slow strangulation of the Japanese economy: with each passing day the stockpiles ebbed.

Oil was also the reason that Pearl Harbor was not as catastrophic a defeat as it could have been. The analysis of Nimitz was that the failure of the Japanese to destroy the fuel tank farms on Oahu changed the course of the war. “Had our oil supply been destroyed, and considering the tremendous shortage of fuel and petroleum production, generally, in Europe, it would’ve taken years to re-establish that supply and would have delayed our Pacific war accordingly,” said Nimitz.

Immediately following the attack, Japan’s war strategy was dictated by the need for oil. Toll describes “the next phase of the war”:

That was the invasion of the Dutch East Indies and seizure of its coveted oil fields, the primary war aim of Japan’s entire southern offensive. … The Dutch fields needed to be taken sooner rather than later, as Japan was even then eating into its limited oil reserves.

War by oil

As Toll describes it, to sail onboard a navy ship was to be always covered in a film of oil. To jump off a ship or parachute from a plane during a battle was to plunge into oil-filled waters.

“As each wave broke over my head, oil and gas vapors burned my eyes and nose, making it difficult to breathe,” photographer’s mate Bill Roy recalled. “I was covered with bunker oil. Some sailors swallowed oil and water, them vomited trying to hang on.”

Gasoline lines snaked through every ship and were therefore major internal fire risks and multiplied the damage of bombs and torpedoes. Refueling at sea left ships vulnerable, and the process itself at the start of the war was time consuming. Coming upon an enemy ship while they were refueling was the dream catch. In addition, a damaged ship could leave a slick of oil in its wake, making it easy to track. A burning ship could send up a plume of black, oily smoke, attracting attention for miles.

These kinds of factors played into the decisions of ship captains in the heat of battle and often decided the outcomes of encounters. For example, the question of fueling was central to the outcome of the Battle of Midway. At a crucial moment in the battle, Admiral Nagumo had to decide on launching his bombers and letting his airborne fighters—running on empty—crash into the sea. He decided to land the fighters and refuel them, delaying his bombers. This delayed a bombing run on American carriers, turning a possible victory or draw into a catastrophic defeat for Japan.

War after oil

World War II was fought for many reasons, but oil defined its limits—how far ships, planes, trucks, and tanks could go. It decided what positions were worth fighting for, where to aim weapons, and who would win over time. It was also the war’s taste, smell, and feel.

In the future perhaps war will be fought with some other kind of energy. At that point, we will have created an historical era: The era of oil war. That’s how we’ll remember it.

Related:

The future looks anime

The hurricane of history

Joan Didion: Voice of the Silent Generation

Rising Sea Level (State of Hawaii)

“Sea level rise is particularly threatening to Waikīkī and military infrastructure around Pearl Harbor. Sea level rise is an existential threat to Hawaiʻi’s food security, water supply, economy, cultural heritage, and overall habitability.”