ITO, Kikuzo.

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Manshu bussan chizu ("Map of Manchurian Production"). An attractive map showing the economic riches of Manchuria and its importance to Japan's growing power in East Asia, issued on the same day as the foundation of the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria. WorldCat records just two institutional copies (Princeton and the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies); examples are correspondingly scarce in commerce.The map, drawn from a bird's eye view rather than a top-down perspective, shows place names in blue and local products in red. The latter include both agricultural goods, for example beans, fruits, rice, chestnuts, cows, sheep, pigs, and horses, as well as strategic resources such as alluvial gold, lead, lumber, lime and coal. The text and images on the verso expand on the region's productive bounty and convey Japan's ambitions for industrial and agricultural mass production.The map was distributed as a supplement to the March 1932 edition of the popular monthly youth magazine Shonen Kurabu ("Boy's Club"). On 1 March, the same day as distribution commenced, the Imperial Japanese Army completed its annexation of Manchuria and proclaimed the foundation of the Manchukuo puppet government with the last Chinese emperor, Puyi, as head of state.

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