1939 Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun Map of 'Round-the-World' Circumnavigation Flight

A large 1939 map of the world prepared by the Tokyo Nichi-Nichi Shimbun to celebrate the Nippon, the first Japanese circumnavigational flight. Although a cause for national celebration, the successful flight of the Nippon, intended to promote international peace and goodwill, was overshadowed by the start of World War II (1939 - 1945) in Europe, which caused the plane to divert from its original route.

A Closer Look

Displaying the world on a Mercator projection with times zones indicated, this map traces the intended flight path of the Nippon (ニッポン), a Japanese-built and crewed plane that undertook a circumnavigation flight in August - October 1939. The path of the plane is traced in red, with red numbers indicating the distance (in kilometers) of each leg of the journey. Countries are color-shaded for easy distinction (the red outline in the southwestern Pacific is the South Seas Mandate - German colonies inherited by Japan in the aftermath the First World War).

Air routes, shipping lines, railways, wireless communications stations, and other transportation infrastructure are also noted, as indicated in the legend at bottom-right. A range of other features are also recorded, including historical battlefields, famous cultural sites, hot springs, mountains, and natural resources such as oil and coal deposits. The map includes various interesting notes and asides, such as the number of Japanese immigrants in California and Hawaii and a discussion of South American border disputes. National flags employed on the map are also explained in the legend.

A block of text at bottom-center discusses the motivation and significance of the mission in telling terms (discussed below). At bottom-left is a group of portraits and brief biographies of the plane's crew members, including 'goodwill ambassador' Ohara Takeo (大原武夫), the chief aviation reporter for the Tokyo Nichi Nichi and its sister publication the Osaka Mainichi, and lead pilot Nakao Sumitoshi (中尾純利).

Flight of the 'Nippon'

The Nippon circumnavigation represents a transition point between the Interwar and World War II eras, though it is worth pointing out that in East Asia these periods do not line up perfectly with the European or Western timeline. In fact, by the time this map was produced, Japan was already in the process of fully mobilizing the population for a 'holy war' in China, which had begun on a full scale in 1937. The goodwill element of the mission and the promotion of peace reflect a last gasp of Japanese prewar internationalism, which was strongest in the Taisho period. But there are signs of Japan's wartime hypernationalism throughout, most obviously in the text box at bottom-center, which belies the true zeitgeist, talking about the flight as the fulfillment of a project for national power following the rapid modernization of the Meiji Era, and mentioning the upcoming '2600th anniversary' of the imperial family (in 1940), an event shot through with expansionist militaristic ideology. The overriding emphasis is that the plane was entirely manufactured (by Mitsubishi) in Japan, whereas earlier aviation milestones had been accomplished with foreign-built planes.

The flight itself was inspired by and meant to surpass the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun-sponsored flight from Tokyo to London in May 1937 (神風号). The route chosen was especially long, allowing the plane to stop by South America, Africa, and southern Asia rather than flying in the shortest route across the northern hemisphere. Setting out from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on August 26, 1939, cheered on by a crowd of some 30,000, the crew of seven first headed northeast towards Alaska, stopping over at Nemuro in northeastern Hokkaido. From there, the plane headed down the west coast of Canada and the United States, across the U.S. to New York, then down the east coast of the U.S., through Mexico and Central America, and down the west coast of South America to Santiago, Chile. The Nippon then traveled across to Buenos Aires, up the coast of Brazil, across the Atlantic to Dakar, then to Europe (the most fraught part of the trip, as war had already been declared), then to Baghdad, Karachi, across India to Bangkok and then to Taiwan before returning to Tokyo.

From a technical standpoint, the flight was nearly flawless, demonstrating the major advances made by Mitsubishi and other Japanese manufacturers. Despite the extensive length of the trip (some 60,000 km and 55 days), the crew moved at a leisurely pace, stopping overnight or for several days in some places for mechanical checks, sightseeing, or weather delays. Their foray in New York City included a visit to the 1939 World's Fair and was extended to attend a Yankee game.

But wider geopolitics soured the success of the Nippon, with the German invasion of Poland occurring a week after the start of the flight. For a time, it seemed like the entire European portion of the trip would have to be canceled. Eventually, though, the plane did transit through Spain, Italy, and Greece, but skipped the belligerent countries of Britain, France, and Germany.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by Kazuo Ueno (植野和夫) of the Tokyo Nichi-Nichi Shimbun as a supplement to the newspaper. It was printed by the Star Printing Co. (スター印刷株式會社), seemingly a short-lived outfit, and published on July 20, 1939 (Showa 14), thus it includes the original intended route through Europe instead of the actual route the plane took. Only two other known examples of this map exist in institutional collections: one at the National Library Board of Singapore and one with the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. The Rumsey example is slightly different, identifiable by the plane and title at top, with the name of the plane included in the title's prefix (純國產機 ニッポン) rather than printed on the plane itself. The reason for these variants is unclear as the maps are otherwise identical and were released on the same day.