Map, Journal of the Japan Cartographers Association

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A number of draft maps of East Asia prepared by Japanese army officers during 1880s were found in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. The Korean Peninsula was one of the focuses of these maps, because Japan competed with China for the control of Korea in this period. Although the Japanese military had tried to survey the areas of the prospected operations after the conclusion of the Treaty of Kanghwa in 1876, the activity of Japanese army officers was strictly limited. However the additional provision of the Treaty of Kanghwa, which was made along with the Treaty of Chemulp’o after the Korean Soldiers Riot in 1885, extended the mapping area throughout Korean territory.
Several Japanese army officers traveled main roads of Korea as diplomatic officials and surveyed their routes with compass and pacing. On the section papers they brought, the azimuth and the distance of the routes were recorded. As the result of their survey, the roadmaps covered the whole Korean Peninsula.
These draft maps were compiled into two series of maps in 1894, when the Sino-Japanese War was started. One is on the scale of 1:200,000 and the other is on the scale of 1:1,000,000. The maps of the former series were utilized by military units in the front line. Those of the latter series were opened for popular use and referred in German and French maps as up-to-date geographic information of East Asia.

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