Look Who it Was Random video

Lagniappe Lecture -- Mark Plotkin

3,180 views · Published 18 September 2014 · 45:54 · Indexed 23 September 2026

Channel: The National WWII Museum · 2014 · Comedy

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Dr. Mark Plotkin presents "Quinine, Rubber, Sherman Tanks and Japanese Submarines: How Rainforest Plants Served as Key Strategic Materials in WWII" World-renowned explorer and Time magazine “Hero for the Planet” Mark Plotkin explores how plants and plant products played an important role in WWII. 

Though the role of plants has seldom been featured in the many histories of WWII, their importance is undeniable. Quinine was originally from the Andes but, by the beginning of the 20th century, most of it was being produced in plantations in Southeast Asia. Rubber, too, is native to South America but was transported to the Asian tropics in the 19th century and grown in industrial plantations. 

One of the major threats to the Allies when the Japanese seized tropical Asia the day after Pearl Harbor was that they were left with little in the way of quinine and rubber. Quinine was important in battling malaria and, since each Sherman tank required a half ton of rubber, the Japanese takeover of Pacific plantations severely constricted America's ability to produce tanks as fast as they were needed. Plotkin gives a historical overview of the ways plants have served as strategic necessities in warfare through the ages and focuses most closely on the relatively untold story of the role of these materials in WWII. 

Learn more about The National WWII Museum at http://www.nationalww2museum.org/visit.

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