https://i.redd.it/o6ua1qsmzstz.jpg
I'm currently a geography major and this map came up in one of my classes while we were discussing US maps of Latin America made while the Good Neighbor Policy was in effect which portrayed Latin America as a mix of racist stereotypes and natural resources to be exploited. This map was offered as another example of that sort of colonialist/imperialist map making.
It's clearly pre-World War II but I was wondering if anyone could give me further context on it. For example, what does the coloring coding of the inset map mean? Is there an exact date written anywhere on the map? I have a range of when it was from based on the fact that Stalin and Gandhi are portrayed as being in power (so it was at the earliest made in 1922) while Manchuria doesn't seem to be in the Japanese sphere of influence so it must have been made before 1931.
I can help with the date. On the very left side, there are three dates.
First says 昭和四年七月四日. 昭和四年 is "4th year of the Showa era", and since the Showa era started in 1926 (that's the first year) the 4th year would be 1929. 七月四日 is July 4th and there are more words after it but I can't read it.
Second date says 昭和七年九月一日. 昭和七年 is "7th year of the Showa era", or 1932. 九月一日 is September 1st, and the words after that look like 発行 which means "published". So it was published on September 1st, 1932.
Third date is 昭和七年九月十八日. Same year, but now its 九月十八日 which is September 18th. The words that follow are 印刷 (printed) and then what looks like 絵本 (picture book), which basically means the picture book containing this map was put into print on this date.
On the very right side, there is another date. It says 昭和七年 (1932) followed by 九月号付録 (the map uses the archaic characters for the last three kanji) which means "September issue freebie", as it's quite common in Japan for magazines to contain "freebies" or "prizes". Above it is 日の出 which is also appears on the left side of the map where the first three dates were. Looks like 日の出 was a magazine that started in 1932.
You can also see on the very bottom right that someone wrote in pencil, 1932.
Then under the southern tip of Chile, there is a sentence or two. I can't read all of it, but it does say 一九三〇年末 (which means "towards the end of 1930" but curiously uses the Western dating system instead of the Japanese one), バード小将 (Captain Byrd) as well as 南極の極地 (remote parts of the Antarctic) so probably talking about Byrd's Antarctic Expeditions.
So if I had to guess, it was printed in 1932, may have been started to be worked on as early as 1929.