NavWarMap No 4 The North Pacific Area

The fourth NavWarMap highlighting the North Pacific arena of war and the path to Tokyo.

Created by the Educational Service Section of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, the NavWarMaps was a series of six maps designed for distribution to armed services personnel. Each provided a high-level overview of various arenas of conflict of WWII and contained detailed strategic information intended to educate soldiers, boost their morale, and increase their resolve to win the war. These pseudo-propaganda posters provide a fascinating insight into the perspective of an American soldier as the war progressed.

This particular issue focuses on the arena of the North Pacific and covers the entire ocean from China to California. Dated events of Japanese aggression are listed beginning in 1895, establishing a pattern of belligerency long before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Major events, like Dolittle’s Raid, are individually represented alongside gold and grey lines, each of which reflects the thrusts and counterthrusts of the Japanese and American navies. Diagrams of the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Attu, America’s largest victories to date in the arena, are shown at the bottom. The enormous imbalance in material loss and casualties is also depicted. This stark graphic and certain examples of the language used (i.e. exterminated Japs on Attu) allude to the evident hatred of the Japanese during wartime.