Japan sought territorial expansion partly because its domestic infrastructure could not supply the fuel its forces needed. Coal-to-liquid refineries offered a difficult but real alternative. The resulting fuel would not necessarily support the highest-performance aircraft, but engines and other equipment could have been designed around what Japan could produce. Even underground plants were within Japanese construction capabilities demonstrated during the island campaigns. A larger domestic fuel base could have changed both the perceived need for war and the operational constraints surrounding Pearl Harbor.
Notable Point · 2:12:03-2:13:52
Synthetic fuel offered Japan an alternative to resource war
Coal-to-liquid production could not equal American resources, but it could have reduced the fuel panic driving Japanese expansion and changed operational choices such as Pearl Harbor.