Carta del Conflitto Nippo-Anglo-Americano [Map of the Japanese-Anglo-American War]

Italian perspectives on the faraway war in the Pacific.

This interesting Italian map of the Pacific Theater of World War II was published in Novara in 1942 by the Istituto Geografico de Agostini. Insets highlight specific areas and themes including Indonesia, Hawaii, the Japanese Empire, the Panama Canal, Guam, and the Strait of Singapore. Distances between points are noted, along with prewar occupation status (e.g. Guam is shown as American).

The small-scale political map offers only a basic and outdated overview of the theater. The title – framing the engagement as an entirely separate war – highlights the disconnected nature of the Japanese conflict in comparison to the German/Italian experiences in Europe and North Africa. These vast distances, mutual suspicions, and exclusive strategic objectives drastically hindered the support Axis powers provided for one another during the war. At times, Japan discretely cooperated with the Soviet Union directly to Germany’s disadvantage!