It is widely recognized that the U.S. oil embargo against to Japan was a major factor behind Tokyo’s decision to launch the war in the Pacific and to seize the oil fields in the Dutch East Indies. What is relatively unknown is Japan’s decade-long explorations of petroleum in Manchuria--a vast, resource-rich region in northeastern China that came under Japanese control in 1931. What is to make of the Japanese claim of discovering large oil fields in Manchuria before the Pacific War? What role did science play in these petroleum explorations and what significance did they have for the production of geological knowledge? 

Daqing Yang is Associate Professor for History and International Affairs at George Washinton University. From August 2018 until January 2019 he is a visiting scholar at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.