Icefire, if it is your first map project, I suggest to start with a smaller map, for example a Pacific Island, to learn the basics.
My suggestion - A northern Kurils map, showing Paramushir, Shumushu and the southern end of Kamchatka. The Japanese had based a large number of planes in the area and the islands were attacked regularly by USAAF bombers flying from Alaska. During the Soviet Invasion in August 1945 both sides used aircraft.
If you really want to start with a China map, Taiwan/Formosa with a small part of of the Chinese mainland would probably be the easiest area. Japanese planes based on Formosa bombed the Chinese mainland during the Sino-Japanese war and the island was attacked for the first time by Chinese bombers in 1938. In 1944 and 1945 there were large scale attacks by US carrier aircraft and land-based bombers.
But to be honest, I don't think such a large map can be done by one person alone, it has to be a team effort.
And concerning scale - I think it is important to do the map in 1:1. In my experience scaled down maps are often useless for creating historically accurate missions. For example I've once tried to build missions showing the Royal Navy raids on Petsamo and Kirkenes on the stock Murmansk map, but it was impossible, because the map isn't 1:1 and the fjords were much to narrow for torpedo attacks. In the end I had to use Mixx map of the same area in UP/HSFX.
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