1. A vehicle peripheral observation device comprising a plurality of cameras for imaging an area including a road surface of a vehicle periphery, and an image processor for displaying the images captured using the plurality of cameras on a monitor; the image processor having overhead-image-generating unit for generating an overhead image of a bird's-eye view of the vehicle periphery, the overhead image comprising a plurality of images captured using the plurality of cameras, and displaying the overhead image in an overhead image display area of the monitor; and a display unit for dividing the overhead image display area into a plurality of divided areas, an image to be enlarged being the portion of the overhead image in an indicated divided area of the plurality of divided areas, wherein at least a part of the vehicle is included in the image to be enlarged; generating a plurality of intermediate images of the image to be enlarged, each of the intermediate images having an intermediate size between the size of the indicated divided area and the size of the overhead image display area; executing a process of sequentially displaying the intermediate images on the overhead image display area beginning with the smallest size intermediate image and ending with the largest size intermediate image; displaying the image of the indicated divided area on the overhead image display area, the size of the image to be enlarged being the size of the overhead image display area; and emphasizing a frame corresponding to the divided area including the image to be enlarged whereby the divided area including the image to be enlarged is specified; wherein the divided area including the image to be enlarged is emphasized by increasing the brightness of the frame, increasing the chroma of the frame or varying the frame to a different hue.