Quadruple Threat to Japan

A 1944 Sunday News map highlighting the Allied threat to Japan.

After reversing the tide of the war at the Battle of Midway, Allied forces began a systematic rollback of Japanese gains in the Pacific theater. This map shows the extent of such gains within the black border, but cracks are beginning to appear in the facade.

Four bold red arrows represent poignant Allied threats in the theater: jump off points in the Aleutians, island hopping in the Marshall and Mariana Islands, the Burma campaign and the reconquest of the Philippines. Territory is color coded by occupational force, vividly showing just how much of the Japanese empire has been lost to the Allied onslaught.

Despite its staggering losses, Japan would tenaciously fight on until the following August. The map was drawn by Edwin Sundberg and published in the September 3, 1944 issue of the New York Sunday News.