第21爆撃集団地図 – XXI Bomber Command Target Charts

The following “Target Charts” are important visual documents that played a central role in the air raids carried out against Japan. An examination of these highly professional maps reveals a number of important themes, the most important of which is that the Army Air Forces eventually adopted a policy and practice of targeting entire cities for destruction via incendiary bombing. The maps were produced between January and August, 1945, under the direction of the Twentieth Air Force/XXI Bomber Command’s A-2 Section, the intelligence and analysis branch of the command. Compiled largely from aerial photographs taken by the 3rd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, the Guam-based 35th Photo Technical Unit and 949th Engineering Aviation Topographical Company created and reproduced the maps. Source: U.S. National Archives, Cartographic and Architectural Section, Record Group 18, 330/6/9/3-8.