Rubber was supposed to end World War II. When Japan invaded Indonesia and other rubber-producing parts of Southeast Asia in 1942, the Allies were cut off from their rubber supply. Tires, gas masks, planes, boats, and tanks required massive amounts of rubber for manufacture and to keep operational. Without rubber the Allies could not compete. First, the U.S. government asked its citizens for help. Americans donated old raincoats and rubber hoses through scrap drives and rationed their use of tires and other rubber products. But the scrap drives didn't help much because the recycled rubber did not work nearly as well as the original.
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