A grant from the Japan Foundation — New York (JFNY) will allow Carleton to shed light on its large collection of World War II-era Japanese maps.
The U.S. Army Map Service distributed maps produced by Imperial Japan to 36 American libraries following World War II; Carleton was among a few small liberal arts colleges to receive these “captured” maps. While large institutions have begun organizing and digitizing similar collections, smaller institutions often lack cartographic expertise and Japanese-speaking librarians, causing their collections to languish.
Here at Carleton, Asuka Sango, John W. Nason Professor of Asian Studies and Religion, recently discovered our collection and immediately determined to use them for teaching and research through collaboration with Academic Technology, Digital Humanities, and Gould Library staff.
An Institutional Project Support Small Grant from JFNY will fund digitization of the first nine sheets of Carleton’s 1,800-sheet collection. As project director, Prof. Sango will use grant funds to produce two articles on the collection and develop curricular resources about them. Prof. Sango’s “Mapping Japan, the Real and the Imagined” project will also allow Carleton to acquire several premodern Japanese maps to both complement current holdings and expand the college’s non-Western holdings in its special collections.
The Japan Foundation, with 26 offices worldwide, promotes international cultural exchange and mutual understanding between Japan and other countries.