Scratches!
 

I pulled out my Eric Johnson strat that I rarely play anymore and was horrified to notice these scratch marks across the upper bout. I remember at one time playing with a brace on my thumb which may have caused them, but I didn't notice at the time. Some of them feel like cracks in the finish, which is a thin nitro finish to start with. Any hope of cleaning these up? I wouldn't bother with a re-finish, but if a polishing compound might help, I'd try it.

Those look like they may be checking. They do look like pic scratches, but they are all over, and pic scratches are usually more localized.
No help on your question, some of it looks like it will buff out, but some of it does not.

Try some Maguires Scratch-X

You may not get all out, but you may be able to vastly minimize.

Are you sure that is the only area?
It could be just nitro doing what nitro does when it gets old.

I'm not sure, unless it's a reissue of some sort, that it would be nitro.

and those for sure look like surface scratches.

I had a student that had a brace on his pinky when he dislocated his knuckle. He had the same problem, didn't notice the scratches that the finger brace made till there were hundreds of them. (much worse than what happened here)