Ampol Pacific Map.
Sydney. Australian Motorists Petrol. (Circa 1942). Stock ID #222594 A decidedly Australian perspective of the Pacific War, rather neglectfully showing national borders as they nominally existed prior to the Franco-Thai War of 1940. Although Manchukuo has been marked on the map, despite Australia having never formally recognised it, other Japanese puppet states in China haven't been afforded the same luxury by the mapmakers. When referring to this item please quote stockid 222594.
Colour map of the Pacific theatre with original envelope dated Sydney, 1945. Map measures 76 x 101.5cm, folding into sixteen panels; envelope measures 20 x 30cm. Some closed tears at folding points neatly repaired with archival-grade washi, else a bright copy in good condition.
Principally serving as an advertisement for Ampol, its corporate paeans have been entangled with a handful of near-indecipherable, patriotic, and anti-Japanese slogans - the most prominent of which being "Be in the van to smash Japan".
Given the vitriol with which Japan has been treated, it can only be presumed that the map was issued after the outbreak of armed hostilities in 1941, though as the map clearly wasn't kept up to date with the rapidly changing situation on the ground, a precise date is difficult to pinpoint. The envelope accompanying the map has a postmark dating it to January 1945, though the map itself could very likely have been produced long before this date.
Atypical for maps of this period, Arunachal Pradesh has been marked out as British Indian territory within the inset map of Burma, though is marked as Tibetan on the main map.
Price: $300.00 AU