This summer, I had the unique opportunity to work with Professor Asuka Sango of the Religion Department and Asian Studies Program. Our focus was Carleton College’s extensive, yet largely untouched, collection of Japanese maps produced by Imperial Japan during World War II. These maps were called “gaihōzu” (maps of foreign territories); they were captured by Allied forces after the war and distributed to libraries across the U.S., including Carleton’s Laurence McKinley Gould Library. Yet, despite their historical significance, these maps have remained largely untouched from language barriers.
I began to get interested in these maps through Professor Austin Mason’s Digital Humanities course, “Hacking the Humanities,” where I used one as the basis for my final project of digitizing these maps and layering them with historical context. Through working as SRP this summer, I was once again struck by how a map could operate on multiple levels. On the surface, it fulfilled its primary function, depicting place names and geographical features. But overlaid with blue and red ink, it transformed into a strategic document, revealing how those features could influence military movements. This layering of data offers a rare glimpse into the evolution of geopolitical strategies.
I began the summer by organizing the entire collection and creating a detailed index. Utilizing my Japanese proficiency, I cataloged each map’s sheet title, series, area name, scale, and, crucially, its secrecy level. This process was the essential first step to making the collection usable for future researchers, students, etc.
Once the index was established, I moved on to a comparative analysis, looking at the digital archives of the Stanford University Libraries and Tohoku University in Japan. This revealed the unique value of Carleton’s collection. While many Japanese archives of gaihōzu focus on Taiwan, Korea, and mainland China, Carleton’s collection is heavily concentrated on the borderlands of Northeast Asia: Siberia and the Soviet Far East, key strategic areas in relation to Russia. By identifying which maps Carleton has that others don’t, we can now better inform researchers around the world about the specific strengths of our collection.
The final phase of my summer research was a collaboration with librarians Katie Lewis and Hsianghui Liu-Spencer to improve the accessibility of these maps in Carleton’s Digital Collections. This prompted a deep reflection on a central question in public scholarship: who is this for? We realized that a Japanese researcher, a librarian, or a Carleton student might need different metadata to find and understand a map. This led to fascinating discussions about how we can make our archive more accessible and useful to a wide range of people.
I am excited to continue this work as a research assistant during the academic year, expanding the index and diving deeper into the questions of public scholarship as I take on my new role as a Digital Humanities Associate. There are many more stories waiting to be uncovered in those maps, and I am grateful to have had the chance to work with them!