A year earlier, in 1940, when a Shell manager named H. C. Jansen arrived at Balikpapan, he had found air raid shelters already built and evacuation plans developed. In the subsequent months, the entrance to the harbor was mined, and 120 men practiced destruction exercises. They all knew that Balikpapan and the surrounding oil fields were one of the great prizes for which the Japanese would go to war. The oil men’s job would be to deny the Japanese that prize.
