One under appreciated outcome of American island hopping across the Pacific during WWII: a shift in the geographical literacy and consciousness of the American public. 1/

Take a listen to this 1942 fireside chat from FDR, in which he asks Americans to "take out and spread before you a map of the whole earth." Map and globe sales surged during the war. https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/february-23-1942-fireside-chat-20-progress-war 2/

Just as American cartographers were mobilized to produce geospatial intel for the war, so were they tasked with keeping the public abreast of events in the Pacific, prompting numerous stylistic/perspectival innovations. Here are a few of my favorite maps born of this effort: 3/

"Pacific Rule Threatens Peace," Baltimore Review, 1940. A preview of the birds-eye view that would become a standard feature of maps of the Pacific theater. 4/

"Target Tokyo," Newsmap, Oct. 1943. Coming on the heels of the Doolittle Raid, this map includes details on flight routes and mileages. It foreshadows devastating air raids to come. 5/

"Japan plan to seize west coast," Seattle Post Intelligencer, August 1943. Depicts a four phase campaign to capture and control all of the Western US. Man in the High Castle, anyone? 6/

"Four Approaches to Japan," Newsmap, May 1944. Noteworthy here is the cartographer, Richard Edes Harrison, whose maps became the gold standard of wartime cartographic design. For more on him see Shulten, https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo3624298.html 7/

"Japan's last citadel feels weight of American power," Los Angeles Times, Feb. 1945. A potent mix of artistic expression and battle line demarcation. 8/

These and lots of other examples are available in the *absolutely incredible* David Rumsey Historical Map Collection: https://www.davidrumsey.com/  For more on cartography of air raids against Japan see http://www.japanairraids.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/A-Cartographic-Fade-to-Black.pdf

Cc @dimmerwahr @Paul_Kreitman @HER_storian @katieparker18th @CaryKaracas @RAHegwood @jeremyyellen @nick_kapur

@simongerman600 just saw your post and thought you’d appreciate this thread from a few days ago