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Lot 468
Rare World War II Relief Map of Kikaiga Shima, Amami Gunto, Japan1945
5 – 15 November 2022, 12:00 EST
Skinner Marlborough, MassachusettsUS$2,500 - US$3,500
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Rare World War II Relief Map of Kikaiga Shima, Amami Gunto, Japan
1945
1945
The painted rubber relief map developed from aerial photographs taken April 3, 1945, showing the entire island with topographic features, rifle pits, locations of fortifications and armaments, communication towers, command posts, and caves, framed.
Ht. 35, wd. 60 in.
Ht. 35, wd. 60 in.
Footnotes
Provenance
By family descent from Robert Morrison.
On June 18, 1945, after training, Robert Morrison was transported with others as combat air crews, to Kauai, Hawaii, where he took command of the 319th Bomber Group and was assigned to VII Bomber Command, 5th Air Force "somewhere in the South Pacific". En-route to assignment with the VII Bomber Command Far East Air Force, they landed in the Philippine Islands at Taclobon, Leyte. After several assigned stops, he was transferred from the Headquarters Squadron in Tachikawa, to the 14th Emergency Boat Squadron in Yokohama, Japan. Here, Robert trained and received his Master Certification as Skipper of an 85-foot Crash Boat and was assigned to P356 at Yokohama, Japan, on January 17, 1946.
Robert's duties as Skipper were Search and Rescue Operations in and around Okinawa and the remote Ryukyu Islands, where Kikaiga Shima Island is located. His search and rescue duties often brought him to Kikaiga Shima. While not on rescue operations, Robert was at his Okinawa command post where orders were given, maneuvers planned, and where the Japanese island relief maps were located.
With the end of the war, this map was viewed as non-essential equipment and was slated to be disposed of along with other office equipment. Because Robert had developed a great fondness for the island during his duties he asked his commanding officer if he could have the map. His superior thought it was an odd request, but he agreed.
In addition to the map, Robert also saved a copy of map legend dated April 3, 1945, that gave the map's scale and identified the locations of rifle pits, machine guns, mortars and rockets, pill box-blockhouse, anti-aircraft guns, trenches, radar installations, anti-tank trenches, radio towers, underground cave entrances, command costs, and search lights. The family had the original legend engraved on a brass plaque included with the map. The original legend does not survive.