1942 Turner Map of the Pacific and East Asia During World War II

This is a January 1942 Stanley Francis Turner Dated Events War Map of the Pacific and East Asia, published less than a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Turner produced the 'Dated Events War Map' series throughout World War II (1939 - 1945), creating more than 25 maps, which, as a whole, present a comprehensive cartographic overview of war events as they unfolded. The present map is the Second Edition, the earliest 'Dated War Events' map we have encountered - we've never seen the first issue.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces from Lhasa, Tibet, and Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon) to Reykjavik, Iceland, and from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn. Black textboxes mark events in the Pacific War from August 1940 (August 20, 1940, U.S.A. leases British ports for joint defense) through January 1942 (January 4, 1942, Chinese victory at Changsha). Most of the referenced events postdate the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Earlier events include Japan joining the Axis (September 27, 1940), President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Lend-Lease Act (March 11, 1941), and the Vichy French surrender of Indochina to the Japanese (July 24, 1941). American, British, Dutch, French, Japanese, and Russian naval bases are marked using specific symbols for each nation. Illustrations of warships and military airplanes fill the Pacific. Color is used to highlight parts of the world under the direct control of the Americans (orange), British (red), and Japanese (black for the Home Islands and Korea and green for the occupied territory, including Manchukuo and French Indochina). Flags also help identify which country controls which territory.

Aside from war-related content, cities and towns fill the map. The map also references natural resources key to the war effort, including oil, rubber, iron, copper, manganese, rice, and tea. Three insets appear along the bottom border: British India, a world map, and the transatlantic route between Natal, Brazil, and Dakar, French West Africa (now Senegal).

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Stanley Francis Turner, printed by R. G. McLean Limited, and published in 1942 by C.C. Petersen. We note 2 examples cataloged in OCLC: University of Houston and the University of Wyoming. An example is also part of the David Rumsey Map Collection. It ranks among the scarcest of Turner's Dated Events maps. This is the first time we have handled an example.