DK - World War II Map by Map

106 THE WIDENING WAR 1942

1940 The Japanese

station troops in Hanoi

and Haiphong and take

over air bases and

railroad marshalling yards

in northern Indochina.

1940 The collaborationist

government in Japanese-

occupied China joins the

Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Late 1930s Japan

heavily fortifies Saipan

and other islands,

breaking the League of

Nations mandate.

1939 Japan takes

Hainan and uses the

island as a forward

base for operations.

1941 The

Japanese invade

southern

Indochina.

Planned Japanese defensive perimeter

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR 1941

After Japan occupied northern Indochina, then later

southern Indochina, the US and other nations—

notably the oil-rich Dutch East Indies—imposed

sanctions on Japan. Deprived of 80 percent of its oil

supplies, in September 1941 the Japanese government

devised a plan to secure a defensive perimeter to

protect the oil and other raw materials Japanese

conquests would soon supply. This would extend from

Burma through the East Indies to the southern Pacific.

6

1941 The Flying Tigers

are based in Rangoon,

from where they

attack Japanese

targets in China.

△ Imperial forces on the move

Japan’s foreign policy was reported positively at home.

This cover of Asahi Graph, a Japanese news magazine,

shows Japanese troops in north China.

Chinese Nationalist

control 1937

Flying Tiger airfields in Burma

Chinese warlord

control 1937

US AID TO CHINA 1941

As Japanese power in eastern Asia grew, the US

became increasingly concerned. The US supported

the Nationalist Chinese with arms, supplies, and

finance. They also funded the establishment of the

Flying Tigers—a squadron of 100 fighter planes flown

by American pilots and led by US aviator Colonel

Claire Lee Chennault. The Tigers began to engage

the Japanese over China in December 1941.

5

1940 Mengjiang, the

Japanese puppet state

in Inner Mongolia,

joins the Co-

Prosperity Sphere.

Mar–Aug 1945 Japan takes

control in Indochina after the

Axis defeat in France. Vietnam,

Laos, and Cambodia are declared

“independent states” in the

Co-Prosperity Sphere.

I N D I A N O C E A N

P A C I F I C O C E A N

Arafura

Sea

Coral

Sea

Sea of Japan

(East Sea)

East

China

Sea

Sea of

Okhotsk

Gilbert

Islands

Bismarck

Archipelago

Midway

Atoll

Kwajalein Atoll

Marshall

Islands

Wake

Island

P

H

IL

IP

PI

N

ES

Timor

Java

Sumatra

Borneo

Mariana Islands

Yap

Guam (to US)

Truk Lagoon

Celebes

Saipan

Palau

Islands

Taiwan

Hainan

Fiji

New

Caledonia

New

Hebrides

Carolin

e Islands

Alaska

SAR

AW

AK

BRITISH

NORTH

BORNEO

MONGOLIA

Shanghai

Nanjing

Beijing

Harbin

Fushun

Rangoon

Toungoo

Manila

Saigon

Port

Moresby

Vladivostok

(MANCHURIA)

MANCHUKUO Khabarovsk

Nagasaki

Pusan

Taihoku

Seoul

Guangzhou

Hanoi

Haiphong

Mandalay

Palembang

Chongqing

Kunming

Singapore

Tokyo

Kyoto

Bangkok

Kuala

Lumpur

Calcutta

Delhi Lhasa

Batavia

D

UT

CH

(^) E A ST INDI
ES
BHUTAN
CEYLON
FR
EN
C
H
(^)
IN
D
O
C
H
IN
A
NEPAL
THAILAND
KOREA
M
AL
AY
A
B
U
R
M
A
USA
New
Gui
nea
AF
GH
AN
IS
TA
N
I
N
D
IA
U
S
S
R
AUSTRALIA
J
A
P
A
N
C
H
I
N
A
IRAN
TANNU

• TU

VA

US_106-107_japanese_ambitions_in_asia.indd 106 24/05/19 1:16 PM