Japanese Propaganda Map Showing the Empire's Conquests in the South Asia and the North Pacific.

JAPANESE EMPIRE.

Edité par Tokyo: Le no hikari, 1942

An arresting and well-preserved piece of Japanese wartime propaganda issued as a supplement to a state-sponsored popular magazine. The front side of the sheet shows a map centred on present-day Indonesia and covering the surrounding territories across to the eastern part of India and down to the northernmost part of Australia. An inset shows a close-up of islands in the Pacific and across to the western coast of America and Canada. The map demonstrates the extent of Japanese control in the region and the strength of its military, with troop numbers, as well as counts of ships and planes, listed in boxes close to every territory. At the same time, the ongoing enemy threat to Japanese interests is indicated on the map by a large inset chart to the bottom-left enumerating the substantial Allied naval presence in the Pacific region. This dual message of power and threat, signalling that the war is going well but that sustained effort is also needed, makes this map a classic example of military propaganda. As if to justify Japan's "East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere" - Tokyo's euphemistic term for its colonial possessions - the rear of the sheet includes a history of British and American aggression in the region, complete with cartoons of Western imperial aggressors spilling blood in Hong Kong and planting flags on territories with hairy hands, as well as an image showing a Japanese fist crushing a yelping Uncle Sam. The main target for these messages was the predominantly rural readers (approximately one million) who subscribed to the cheap mass magazine where this supplement was published. Sponsored by the state and run by the powerful Agricultural Union (sangy kumiai), Le No Hikari (Light of the Home) began publication in 1925. Issues were militaristic, "ideologically charged and nationalistic from the outset" (Marshall, p. 182). With the onset of total war, the magazine embraced unifying rhetoric designed to strengthen the war effort. With Japan's farmers required to feed the nation and generate an agricultural surplus to fund the industrialised wartime economy, posters such as this helped stoke public support for the war up to 1945. Amy Bliss Marshall, Magazines and the Making of Mass Culture in Japan, 2019. Folio (269 x 370 mm). Coloured map with cartoons to the reverse side. A double-sided sheet. Originally folded when issued, insignificant loss at the bottom of the vertical fold not affecting the content, slightly chipping, light toning and very mild foxing, content still bright and sharp. A near-fine copy. N° de réf. du vendeur 149191

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : Japanese Propaganda Map Showing the Empire's...
Éditeur : Tokyo: Le no hikari, 1942
Edition : Edition originale