During The Sino-japanese War And Sichuan, The Ethanol Industry

During the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the military actions caused a growing demand for oil. However, the oil supply was almost completely cut off by the Japanese army. The insufficiency of oil forced the national government to seek for alternatives to oil in the country in order to ensure the proper work of military supplies and traffic.Sichuan province, as the center of the rear area, was the rear base of the national government for the long-term resistance against Japan. Meanwhile Sichuan was also one of the important sugar-producing areas. If the by-product of the sugar was used to produce alcohol, the problem of fuel shortage at that time could be solved. The national government paid much attention to the alcohol industry, which was a great move to use alcohol as an alternative to petrol. The national government adopted many measures to boost the production of alcohol. Thus the alcohol industry in Sichuan province, attracted the government and many businessmen to invest and set up factories to produce alcohol here. Therefore, the alcohol industry in Sichuan, with Neyiang as its representative, gained an unprecedented prosperity. The development of alcohol industry provided the fuel support for the military transportation and traffic transportation in the rear base during the war period and supported the whole country in the War of Resistance Against Japan.During the war, the development of alcohol industry in Sichuan can be divided into two periods :from September in 1938 to the end of 1943 is the prosperity period; while from the end of 1943 to the end of the war is the declining period. In its development, the Chinese people made explorations in technology in many aspects for the alcohol industry, and their efforts lead to an annual growing increase in the production of alcohol before 1943, fulfilling the purpose of supporting the war to some extent However, the government didn't adopt any effective measure to solve the problems coming up in the development of alcohol industry, and alcohol, as the alternative to fuel, was always in the state of supply falling short of demand. In addition, to control the production of alcohol became profitable, so the government employed the control policy. The government just focused on the utilization of alcohol industry regardless of the difficulties and problems in its development, so the alcohol industry began to decline dramatically after 1943.The failure of economic control of the national government during the war period is the essential cause for the declination of alcohol industry in Sichuan.Surveying the prosperity and declination of the alcohol industry in Sichuan province, we can get a clear idea of the whole industry of the rear base, which experienced from prosperity to declination, and furthermore, we can discover the historical responsibility that the national government should shoulder in the development of the industry of the rear base.