---
title: '''Rumbo a Tokio'' [Road to Tokyo]'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-rumbo-a-tokio-1944/
description: A photograph of the US battleship Iowa firing its main guns fills the sheet, with a globe map of the Pacific showing red arrows of possible US attack
section: Collection
---

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3. 'Rumbo a Tokio' [Road to Tokyo]

[!['Rumbo a Tokio' \[Road to Tokyo\], 1944 US poster: A photograph of the US battleship Iowa firing its main guns fills the sheet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/us-rumbo-a-tokio-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/us-rumbo-a-tokio-1944.jpg)

# 'Rumbo a Tokio' [Road to Tokyo]

A photograph of the US battleship Iowa firing its main guns fills the sheet, with a globe map of the Pacific showing red arrows of possible US attack routes and a map of Japan marking cities and industrial and resource centres. The maps present only the US-force approach routes and Japan's strategic targets (card-stacking), and the warship photograph lends the force's weight to the map claims (transfer).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (Spanish) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
RUMBO A TOKIO

En estos mapas de la guerra del Pacífico se ven las grandes distancias que hay que recorrer para combatir al Japón. Las flechas del mapa global constituyen cuatro principales preocupaciones para los jefes militares japoneses e indican las posibles direcciones que llevarán los ataques de las fuerzas norteamericanas contra el Japón. En el mapa del Japón aparecen las ciudades y centros industriales estratégicos.

Cañones del acorazado IOWA
de los EE. UU. disparando en el Pacífico

[globe map labels:] U.S.S.R.; IS. ALEUTAS; CANADÁ; JAPÓN; MAYOR AVANCE JAPONÉS; CHINA; IS. BONIN; FORMOSA; IS. MARIANAS SAIPAN GUAM; U.S.A.; HAWAII; INDIA; IS. FILIPINAS; IS. MARSHALL; ZONA DEL CANAL; I. COCOS; IS. GILBERT; IS. GALÁPAGOS; AMÉRICA DEL SUR; IS. SALOMÓN; OC. ÍNDICO; TIMOR; AUSTRALIA; I. DE PASCUA; NUEVA ZELANDIA
[Japan map labels:] JAPÓN; HOKKAIDO; HUNSHU; KYUSHU; Sapporo; Hakodate; Sendai; Tokio; Yokohama; Shizuoka; Nagoya; Kyoto; Kobe; Osaka; Hiroshima; Kure; Fukuoka; Omura; Nagasaki; HULLA; PETROLEO; FRIJOL; TRIGO; ARROZ; PLOMO; HIERRO; COBRE; CERAMICA; SEDA; PLATA; ALGODON; GANADERIA; ORO

[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1944—O—[illegible]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
ROAD TO TOKYO

These maps of the Pacific war show the great distances that must be travelled to fight Japan. The arrows on the global map are four main concerns for the Japanese military chiefs and indicate the possible directions the attacks of the North American forces against Japan will take. The map of Japan shows the strategic cities and industrial centres.

Guns of the US battleship IOWA firing in the Pacific

[map labels in Spanish as above; e.g. MAYOR AVANCE JAPONÉS = GREATEST JAPANESE ADVANCE; IS. = islands; HULLA = coal; PETROLEO = oil; FRIJOL = beans; TRIGO = wheat; ARROZ = rice; PLOMO = lead; HIERRO = iron; COBRE = copper; SEDA = silk; PLATA = silver; ALGODON = cotton; GANADERIA = cattle; ORO = gold]
```

[← La Superfortaleza \[The Superfortress\]](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-ociaa-la-superfortaleza-b29-spanish-1944/) [Air-raid notice: 'This city is the next target' (US leaflet to Japanese civilians) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/warning-next-target-japan-leaflet-1944/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.