The Expanding Empire of Japan

Land, commercial, and sea advances across the Pacific by Japan.

This brightly colored map of eastern Asia and the Pacific Ocean was designed by Antonio Petruccelli and Richard Edes Harrison and published in a 1936 edition of Fortune Magazine. The persuasive image presents a wary interwar audience of Japan’s expanding imperial ambitions in the region.

Land, sea, and commercial advances are generalized with various red lines, giving the impression of a disease spreading across the Pacific and leading to inevitable conflict with the West. Bar graphs in the lower right highlight the imbalance of imports/exports – defined as ‘Yen Imperialism’.

The map was published during a period of increasing American concern about Japanese geopolitical aspirations. The 1931 invasion of Manchuria was seen as a violation of international law, eventually resulting in sanctions that crippled the Japanese industrial economy and intensified animosity between the nations.