Typhoon Chart of Okinawa and the Pacific

Tracking tropical storms across the Pacific.

This scarce map of questionable utility was published as a promotional item by Federal Automotive Services on the island of Okinawa. Based on the advertising in the lower center, the broadside was likely issued a few years into the American occupation of the island – probably around 1948. A basic outline of the Central Pacific has been overlaid with a numbered grid. Concentric circles center on Okinawa, perhaps to be used as aids in plotting the course of typhoons approaching the island.

The region encounters numerous tropical storms per year, with Okinawa averaging about 7 making landfall annually. The results can be devastating. In 1944, Typhoon Cobra struck the U.S. Pacific Fleet about 300 miles east of the Philippines and sank three ships, killing almost 800 men.

The map is rare and unlisted in WorldCat as of August 2024. This is the first example I have handled and only one other market record has been identified.