|
||
|
|
|
|
Japanese propaganda map focusing on Axis victories and hegemony in Europe, using a number of frightening and effective images to emphasize how poorly the battle was going for the Allies. Showing a still-cooperating Germany and Soviet Union, a United Kingdom poised to fall, and a blockade of the North Atlantic, this map paints a grim picture of the progress of the war. The map can be definitely dated to between the summer of 1940 and the spring of 1941, and is more likely to date to pre-December 1940, as American forces appear to be limited to merchant aid.
Propaganda maps formed a central part of the war effort in both Allied and Axis powers. While they did provide updating information on the war, the depictions were often altered to paint a more hopeful picture. Here, that convincing imagery is executed frighteningly well - the large aircraft over London makes Operation Sea Lion seem all-but-inevitable, German planes block all ships coming from the New World or British Colonies, and the "Axis" between Berlin, Rome, and Tripoli stabilizes Europe and North Africa.
Interesting on this map is the portrayal of the Soviet Union as a neutral territory and one that provided a critical link between Europe and Japan. Also shown are the critical routes needed to connect the two powers between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. This paints a different picture of the theaters of the war than the one that is more commonly imagined today - with the Pacific and European theaters mostly separate, connected by the US primarily. However, from the Axis point of view, this was evidently not the case.
![(Second World War - Anti-British Propaganda) Français regardez cette carte [French, look at this map!]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/88492.jpg)
