'Manchoutikuo and Adjoining Territories'. Captured Japanese Military Map.
Tokyo: Land Survey Department, 1935. A photostat of a Japanese military map known as a gaihozu, or "maps of outer lands", likely captured by American forces, and stamped at the lower right, "Geographic Branch, Military Intelligence Division, Received Aug 6 -1935".
The map shows Manchukuo (Manchuria), a puppet state of Japan's in northeast China (1932 - 1945). In the Mukden Incident, the Japanese deliberately bombed their own railway in China (the South Manchuria Railway) blaming it on the Chinese and using it as a pretext to take over Manchuria and rename it Manchukuo.
At the upper right can be seen an area designated "Jewish auto. province"; this is an area which exists today, known as the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. It is a federal subject of Russia to the far east, bordering China. Stalin sent Jews to this remote area starting in the late 1920s in a plan to develop an autonomous nation for Russian Jews.
Around 1870 the Japanese military began making maps of neighboring countries or gaihozu. At first, they copied maps obtained from those countries or from the West. The place names on this map are printed in English. The map shows railways, air routes, steamer routes, rivers, wadis, deserts, marshes, "the Great Walls", roads, mines, telegraph stations, harbours, aerodromes, principal cities & towns, Japanese embassies & consulates, and "foreign public offices". Four insets include a General Map of Eastern Asia, Fengtien, Harbin and Hsinking.
Stamp at lower left, "General Staff Map Collection, File Copy, Do not mark or mutilate". On the verso, in manuscript, "Official Japanese War Mapof Manchoutikuo", A Photostat, Scale 1:2,500,000". Manuscript note in pen at top margin, "For Dr. Acton [AP?]. 40 1/2 x 28 1/4". Slits at original fold intersections; minor chipping at right edge in margin only. OCLC: 495079301. Very good overall. Item #24456
Price: $450.00