where did the japanese get their oil during World War II ?

Question

obviously, they needed it for their planes, ships,...
apart from some oilfields on the bottom of the japanese-chinese sea (wich i doubt they were exploiting back then), i have no knowledge of japanese oilfields.

Answer 1

That was the reason for the attack on Pearl Harbor. In those days, the US was a major exporter of oil (hard to believe these days, isn't it?) and the US embargo had the Japanese down to only a few months' oil reserves in the late fall of 1941. The Dutch East Indies (Shell Oil) seemed easy pickings, since the Dutch government was in exile and Germany in control of that country, and the US Navy was all that kept the Japanese out of that area. That was the reason for the Japanese switch from the "northern strategy" to the "southern strategy" to obtain a rapid and steady supply of oil. [Zhukov had checked them in their expansion towards the Siberian oilfields in 1939.] It's also why the US strategy of using submarines to interdict the supply was so effective as the war progressed.

Answer 2

the whole reason the Japanese went to war in 1941 was that, after the US cut off exports of oil to Japan in 1940 because of their occupation of and atrocities in China, Japan planed to seize the oil fields of British Brunei and Dutch Indonesia..(Borneo).this was known as the "Southern Resource Area"....today, the Sultan of Brunei is the richest man on the planet ( sorry, Mr Gates) cause he sits on a LOT of oil!

the American held Territory of the Philippines was also in the way so the Japanese had to take on all the Western Powers at once..and had knocked them all out by April of 1942....

and by 1944 American advances in the Central Pacific, the liberation of the Philippines, and American subs running wild and sinking tankers along the 3,000 mile voyage form Brunei to the Home Islands, the Japanese were just about out of fuel

Answer 3

Southeast Asia

Answer 4

the Japanese operations led in 1941 and 1942 in malaysia (burma), Indonesia, and the Phillipines where all for oil

Answer 5

they got the oil from the pacific islands and the axis powers which are germany and italy.