Pearl Harbor attack

As World War II loomed with America pushed into the war by the Pearl Harbor attack, the need for an independent rubber supply was critical. The government instituted several nationwide efforts including the Manhattan and Synthetic Rubber Projects. Carl Speed Marvel was one of the chemists involved in the Synthetic Rubber Project. 

I he momentum of research into camouflage technology that had been initiated in 1917 and so abruptly ended in 1919 was not reactivated until 1935, and then only in the United States. During that year the United States Navy made funds available to the Naval Research Laboratory to permit the recommencement of studies and tests on low visibility camouflage at San Diego, California. Although the United States had adopted an isolationist stance in world affairs, and it was still some years before the Pearl Harbor attack was to draw the country into World War II, the research effort continued. In 1936 the scope of these studies was expanded in 1939 they were intensified further. 

The Chemical Section, Hawaiian Department, like the chemical sections all over the world, had a paramount interest In gas warfare preparedness. Although Unmacht had devoted most of his attention after the Pearl Harbor attack to Immediate individual and collective... 

Of the 298 chemical units in existence at the cessation of hostilities (2 September 1945), all but 14 were mobilized after the Pearl Harbor attack. (5ee Table 9.) Taking into account organizations reconstituted and disbanded, a total of 383 chemical units and 31 platoons and detachments were activated while the war was in progress. This unparalleled expansion, unexpected and not provided for in prewar planning, gave rise to a number of problems in connection with unit training. 

Air policy on chemical warfare training at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack called for the training of all individuals and all units of the Army Air Forces in defense against chemical attack, as well as for the tactical readiness of combat units for offensive action. The instructions were comprehensive... 

Immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Under Secretary of War directed the Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service to "take all measures necessary to expedite so far as possible the delivery of incendiary bombs. In January 1942 the OC CWS, after hearing from the War Production Board that magnesium would be available by May or June, notified each of five procurement district offices to arrange for the purchase of components of the M50 bomb. The district offices began immediately to negotiate contracts for components and for casting magnesium bomb bodies. 

At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, no other plant existed in the U.S. capable of making anything larger than small arms ammunition. There was no knowledge elsewhere there were no detailed plans for whole industries elsewhere. Without the industrial know-how developed at Picatinny, the rapid conversion of commercial concerns to mass ammunition manufacture would have been impossible... 

Shortly after Japan s December 7,1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. became more driven to expedite its timetable for developing the first fission weapon because of fear that the U.S. lagged behind Nazi Germany in efforts to create the first atomic bomb. On December 2, 1942 at 3 49 p.m., Enrico Fermi and Samuel K. Allison achieved the world s first controlled, self-sustained nuclear chain reaction in an experimental reactor using natural uranium and graphite. 

But with Einstein s advocacy the Manhattan Project began, under the leadership of Oppenheimer. Named for the New York office of the Army Corps of Engineers, it was given almost a blank cheque when America entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The bomb was pursued on two fronts. One involved developing physical and chemical techniques for separating the isotopes of uranium, milligram by milligram. 

In the 1930s, more than 90 percent of the natural rubber used in the United States came from Malaysia. In the days after Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941 and the United States entered World War II, however, Japan captured Malaysia. As a result, the United States—the land with plenty of everything, except rubber—faced its first natural resource crisis. The military implications were devastating because without rubber for tires, military airplanes and jeeps were useless. Petroleum-based synthetic rubber had been developed in 1930 by DuPont chemist Wallace Carothers but was not widely used because it was much more expensive than natural rubber. With Malaysian rubber impossible to get and a war on, however, cost was no longer an issue. Synthetic rubber factories were constructed across the nation, and within a few years, the annual production of synthetic rubber rose from 2000 tons to about 800,000 tons. 

That case would require a fleet of aircraft twenty times larger than the attack on Pearl Harbor to kill half the people in Los Angeles with phosgene. Such a major effort, he said, would have a bigger pay-off if explosives were used. ... 

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. The U.S. enters World War II. 

The timing of the petroleum companies entry into the chemical industry determined their long-term position in the industry. The four that commercialized petrochemicals before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor— Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon by 1993), Shell, Standard Oil of California (Chevron by 1993), and Phillips—were the first movers. By the 1950s they had become the leaders in the basic feedstocks and commodity polymers such as polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, and polypropylene. Those companies that entered after 1941 achieved success by focusing on specific niche products in the manner of the smaller U.S. companies. As shown in Table 1.1, these include Arco (Atlantic Refining Company), Amoco (Standard Oil of Indiana), Ashland, and BP America (acquirer of Standard Oil of Ohio). 

America entered World War II as a result of the infamous attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor. Initially, her troop transport auxiliaries were, like their British counterparts, painted plain grey in Measures 1,3, 13 and 14 here the Matson liner Monterey s funnels still reveal the welded Ms that were part of her peacetime appearance. 

Three days earlier, Pearl Harbor had been attacked. The Second World War brought a manufacturing boom to Los Angeles. The city s factories grew so fast that their consumption of electricity more than tripled from 1941 to 1943. And among the fastest-growing branches of industry were the makers of chemicals, rubber, and nonferrous metals, all heavy emitters of irritating fumes. 

Churchill received Hankey s memo on Sunday, 7 December — the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Two weeks later he flew to the USA for the first Washington Conference leaving the whole subject in the hands of the Chiefs of Staff. On 2 January 1942 the Defence Committee met in Churchill s absence and discussed biological warfare. The minutes are a model of official discretion Lord Hankey was authorised to take such measures as he might from time to time deem appropriate to enable us without undue delay to... 

The torpedo bombers divided into groups of twos and threes and dived. The aircrews had prepared themselves to ram the battleships if necessary, but nothing restrained their attack. At 0758 the Ford Island command center radioed its frantic message to the world air raid pearl HARBOR. THIS IS NOT DRILL. Admiral Kimmel saw the attack begin from a... 

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