February 18, 1932 – Japan sets up Manchukuo, a puppet state in northern China
To provide legitimacy to its conquest and occupation ofManchuria, on February 18, 1932, Japanestablished Manchukuo (“State of Manchuria”), purportedly an independent state, with itscapital at Hsinking (Changchun). Puyi, the last and former emperor of China under the Qing dynasty, was named Manchukuo’s “head ofstate”. In March 1934, he was named“Emperor” when Manchukuowas declared a constitutional monarchy.
Manchukuo was viewed bymuch of the international community as a puppet state of Japan, andreceived little foreign recognition. Infact, Manchukuo’s government was controlled byJapanese military authorities, with Puyi being no more than a figurehead andthe national Cabinet providing the front for Japanese interests in Manchuria.
Japan controlled the South Manchuria Railway from Ryojun (formerly Port Arthur) to Mukden and further north by the time of its invasion of Manchuria in 1931.(Taken from Japanese Invasion of Manchuria – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)
Background Toprotect Japanese personnel and their interests, including the territory andrailway, the Japanese military formed the Kwantung Army in 1906, which soonbecame dominated by radical officers who desired that Japan took a more aggressiveforeign policy. Japanese troopsprotecting the railway were confined to a prescribed zone on both sides of thetracks, and by agreement were not allowed to operate beyond this perimeter.
In the late 1920s, the Kwantung Army drew up a plan to annexthe whole of Manchuria for Japan,but this was contingent only if Chinaprovoked a war that could justify such an invasion. The deteriorating China-Japan relations wereexacerbated by the intensely anti-foreign, particularly anti-Japanese, policiesof Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government. Japan, having gained territories and concessions in Northeast Chinathrough treaties, complained of many violations being committed by the Chinese,including infringing on Japanese rights and interests, interfering withJapanese businesses, boycotting Japanese goods, evicting and detaining Japaneseindividuals and confiscating their properties, and cases of violence, assault,and battery.
In 1928, Chinaended over a decade of political fragmentation and achieved reunification underNationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang (KMT) government(previous article). Japan had opposed China’sreunification, viewing this as a threat to its ambitions in Manchuria. Elements of the Kwantung Army assassinatedthe leading Manchurian warlord, Zhang Zuolin, who had maintained a fragile butworkable relationship with the Japanese. Zhang Xueliang, Zhang Zuolin’s son, succeeded as the leading Manchurianwarlord, whom the Japanese hoped to win over. Instead, the young warlord recognized Chiang’s authority over Manchuria,and asked for financial assistance from the Nationalist government to constructrailway and port facilities in Manchuria. The Nationalist government soon establishedcivilian authority in Manchuria, setting uplocal administrative offices in the cities and towns. In April 1931, the Chinese governmentannounced its intention to reclaim foreign-held concessions, properties, andinfrastructures. Chiang, afterreunifying China,had long sought to renegotiate with the foreign powers for the end of theQing-era “unequal treaties”.
The Japanese naturally were alarmed, as the proposedprojects by Chinathreatened to compete directly with the existing Japan-controlled rail and portfacilities. Back at home, Japanexperienced rapid population growth pressures, a massive earthquake in 1923that killed over 100,000 people, and economic difficulties in the Showa crisis(1927) and then the ongoing worldwide Great Depression. Japan’s political system also washighly unstable, as successive governments owed their existence to and werecontrolled by the Japanese military establishment.
In mid-1931, two incidents further aggravated relationsbetween Japan and China. First, in late June, a Japanese Army officer,Captain Shintarō Nakamura, and his crew, conducting intelligence work in aremote area in Manchuria, were captured andexecuted by troops loyal to warlord Zhang Xueliang. A few days later, on July 1, 1931, when localChinese farmers in Wanpaoshan village, Manchuria,attacked newly settled ethnic Korean farmers over a dispute on irrigationrights, Japanese police intervened and protected the Koreans. The second incident triggered widespreadanti-Chinese riots in Korea,which was then a Japanese possession. The two incidents, particularly the Nakamura murder, also fueledJapanese public anger against China,and the Japanese military pressed its government to undertake stronger punitiveactions against China.
Two years earlier, in 1929, a number of Japanese officers ofthe Kwantung Army, particularly Colonel Seishirō Itagaki and Lieutenant ColonelKanji Ishiwara among others, had began preparing a contingency plan for aJapanese full-scale conquest of Manchuria. Taking advantage of Japanese public anger brought about by the tworecent incidents, Colonel Ishiwara traveled to Tokyo and presented the now completedcontingency invasion plan to the Japanese Military High Command, which thelatter approved. In Ryojun (Port Arthur), KwantungArmy commander Shigeru Honjo also agreed to carry out the contingency plan,subject to the Chinese military precipitating a major incident that couldjustify a Japanese invasion.
However, the Japanese government, which maintained aconciliatory policy on its relations with China, issued instructions to theKwantung Army’s investigation of the Nakamura incident, to proceed morediplomatically, which was a setback to officers who wanted to provoke a confrontationthat would lead to war. Then when theJapanese military high command in Tokyo sent ahigh-ranking officer to Manchuria to providecounsel on the Nakamura murder negotiations with the Chinese, the plottersdecided to take action.
