'Pacific Arena'

Vintage colour persuasive map, 1944

This reduced atlas version of Harrison’s Pacific Arena, first published in September 1942, uses an orthographic globe to make the vast Pacific comprehensible as a single strategic theatre. Harrison’s key point is that the most direct U.S.–Japan route is not across the central Pacific, but north through Dutch Harbor and the Aleutians. Pearl Harbor becomes a flank position, Truk its Japanese counterpart, while Japan’s island empire appears as an elaborate defensive grid running through the Ryukyus, Philippines, East Indies, Marianas, Carolines and Marshalls. Reissued in June 1944, as American forces advanced toward Japan, the map shows both the strength of Japan’s perimeter and its weakness: China, Siberia and the northern route offered no natural defensive line.

CAPTION BELOW PICTURE: 'Pacific Arena'

DATE PRINTED: 1944    

IMAGE SIZE: Approx 34.0 x 55.0cm, 13.5 x 21.5 inches (Large); Please note that this is a folding map.

ARTIST/CARTOGRAPHER/ENGRAVER: Richard Edes Harrison

PROVENANCE: "Look at the World—A Fortune Atlas for World Strategy", by Richard Edes Harrison, text by the editors of Fortune. New York: Alfred A. Knopf

TYPE: Vintage colour persuasive map

VERSO: There is text and/or images printed on the reverse side

CONDITION: Good; suitable for framing. There are pinholes along the centrefold where it was bound in. Please check the scan for any blemishes prior to making your purchase. Virtually all antiquarian maps and prints are subject to some normal aging due to use and time which is not obtrusive unless otherwise stated. I offer a no questions asked return policy - see below.

AUTHENTICITY:  This is an authentic historic print, published at the date stated above. I do not offer reproductions. It is not a modern copy. The term 'original' when applied to a print means that it was printed at the first or original date of publication; it does not imply that the item is unique. 'Print' means any image created by applying an inked block to paper or card under pressure by any method including wood engraving, steel engraving, copperplate, wood cut and lithography.

REMARKS: FRANCE: Gravures et Cartes anciennes. DEUTSCHLAND: Alte Lankarten und Stadt ansichten. ITALIA: Stampe e Mappe antiche. ESPAÑA: Mapas antiquos y impresiones antiguas. E and OE. Force Majeure. English law shall apply.

RETURNS POLICY:   I offer a no questions returns policy. All I ask is that you pay return shipping and mail back to me in original condition, suitably packed & insured, within 14 days of receipt.