Manchukuo, puppet state created by Japan in China [1932]

Encyclopedia Britannica ^ | Last Updated: September 7, 2022 | most recently revised and updated by John M. Cunningham

[SunkenCiv]

Manchukuo, Chinese Manzhouguo, puppet state created in 1932 by Japan out of the three historic provinces of Manchuria (northeastern China). After the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), Japan gained control of the Russian-built South Manchurian Railway, and its army established a presence in the region; expansion there was seen as necessary for Japan’s status as an emerging world power. In 1931 the Japanese army created an excuse to attack Chinese troops there, and in 1932 Manchukuo was proclaimed an “independent” state. The last Qing emperor was brought out of retirement and made Manchukuo’s ruler, but the state was actually rigidly controlled by the Japanese, who used it as their base for expansion into Asia. An underground guerrilla movement composed of Manchurian soldiers, armed civilians, and Chinese communists opposed the occupying Japanese, many of whom had come over to settle in the new colony. After Japan’s defeat in 1945 the settlers were repatriated.

[SunkenCiv]

On September 18, 1931, several packages of blasting powder were detonated on the South Manchuria Railway. The Kwantung Army blamed the Chinese for this, and used it as an excuse to invade Manchuria, launching a series of events which would culminate in the rise of militarism in Japan.

SOURCES:
Japan's Total Empire, Young
Ishiwara Kanji's Confrontation with the West, Peattie
The Japanese Colonial Empire, Peattie
The Making of Japanese Manchuria, Matsusaka

Go Fast Imperialism: The Manchurian Incident & Interwar Japanese Colonial Politics
The Historian's Craft | October 1, 2021

[SunkenCiv]

• This false flag attack triggered world’s largest war | Logan Nye | April 29, 2020
• Manchukuo (Japanese Puppet State in China) [flag]

[fidelis]

Interesting period of history leading up to the war in the Pacific of WWII. I’m currently reading Ian W. Toll’s massive trilogy to get up to speed.

[ReformedBeckite]

A lot of world globes and Atlases were sold during this time period so people could look up were these countries were on the globes and atlases, The second main reason why a lot of globes were sold during this time period was because they started making them differently so they could mass produce them so for that reason the cost came down considerable.

[SunkenCiv]

When I was in elementary, jr high, and high school, there were still some of those roll-down maps from that era, showing "Manchukuo". :^)

[SunkenCiv]

I watched a better documentary earlier this year, went into detail on how Ishawhatever came up with the idea of the false flag to seize Manchuria, but was dead set against the Mukden false flag, warning that it would start a war of attrition with China that Japan couldn't win.

By the time of Mukden, Mao had vanished with his fellow thugs, into the interior, on the Long March, and Chiang Kai-shek could turn his entire attention to the Japanese threat.

That war, and Tojo's rise led to Ishiwara's retiring to the country as Tojo rose precipitously to defacto supreme power. Tojo's next bright idea was to commit what is IMHO the biggest military blunder of all time, attacking the US -- didn't make sense then, doesn't now, and can't be made to make sense.

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident started the war with China, Mukden led to the Manchukuo puppet state. [blush]

[x]

The film The Last Emperor deals with ... the last Manchu emperor of China.

I believe China took great pains under the Communists to move Han Chinese into Manchuria and other outlying areas, so that they wouldn't pose a breakaway nationalist threat to China.

The Manchurians were such a small group compared to the Chinese that it's surprising that they were able to conquer the country and hold onto it for centuries.

[Buttons12]

Just as a lone assassin didn’t trigger WW1, the Manchukuo incident didn’t set off WW2. Japan had begun seeding the region with its people, after 1905 (Russo-Japanese War). It was a “sphere of influence” — the object of an imperialist approach. There were factions in Japan, pro and con. Democracy v militarism, aristocracy v militarism. The militarists didn’t have it their way just yet.

And over a million Japanese in Manchuria took severe punishment after the war, from not only the Chinese but the Soviets as well, who did not behave as civilly as the occupiers of Japan proper.

The puppet state was not even the first overreach by Japan, but at the time the Japanese militarists considered it the essential reach, with mineral resources and Port Arthur.

Once the militarists were firmly in charge, late 1930s, they had another problem: the minerals and the ports weren’t going to do them much good without oil, rubber, and shipping access points like the Strait of Malacca.

The history of this time and region is fascinating. A truly bone-headed policy by a nation scarcely out of medievalism, feeling its oats, bent on modernity and parity with powerful nations, yet without the cultural foundations necessary. Indeed as their technology and ambitions advanced, their culture regressed (Shintoism, samurai and emperor worship).

[SunkenCiv]

The Marco Polo Bridge incident did indeed set off WWII. Had it not taken place, something else *may* have, but that is a what-if scenario. There was a political reward in the form of a power shift with each successive grab, as the Japanese legislators responded to each perceived threat to Japanese citizens living in Manchuria by sending more cash. The Japanese had begun to settle there around the turn of the century.

Bringing us into the war — an event triggered by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor — led to the annihilation of the Axis regimes and their leaders. There was no upside to it — the Japanese couldn’t have landed troops on the west coast and marched across to our industrial centers. US factories built ships (mostly for us), planes (over 300K of all types, for us and all of our allies), tanks and other other vehicles (over 30K Shermans). After the war, even Stalin (figuratively) toasted the US industrial output.

Meanwhile, the Japanese had loads of raw materials in their newly acquired territories, but starting in 1942 the smallish US sub fleet was shifted to sinking their shipping. The US figure I’ve seen was, 8 million tons sunk, much of it by 1944, but the Japanese figure I’ve seen is 12 million tons. I’d guess that the discrepancy arises from the US War Department’s overcautious assignment of credits for sinkings.

[dfwgator]

This is basically what I equate Russia and Ukraine to.

It will end up putting a lot of wheels in motion that may have disastrous consequences 10 years down the road.

[skeeter]

Both false flag operations were the bright ideas of local IJA commanders.

The Japanese military was the proverbial hammer, to them every problem looked like a nail. This was especially true of the Young Officers Movement, a radical group created in the early 30s to counter the rise of leftists in the military.

Many leaders in Japan knew the military was taking the nation to ruin, and many in the military itself, and they had no illusions about defeating the US. Yet apparently they could do nothing to stop it.

[SunkenCiv]

Good times, including ruthless conquest, often leads to a series of generations who see the opportunity for more leisure and take it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make sure my bottled water is cold for hydration after my massage.

[Buttons12]

Marco Polo Bridge was an entirely different event. 1931, Mukden incident. 1937, MPB. The latter, most would agree, touched off the Sino-Japanese War (not WW2). The former was the “false flag” to justify invading Manchuria.
The general reader might enjoy David Bergamini’s “Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy.”

[SunkenCiv]

Kanji Ishiwara was a Lieutenant Colonel at the time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident#Events

[SunkenCiv]

I noted that in my correction.

[Buttons12]

The Japanese military was the proverbial hammer, to them every problem looked like a nail.

Yep. And the squeaky hammer got the grease, too! There were factions under every rock but the militarists ran over all the rest. Within their ranks there was much dissent also, although in a uniform a man had much less chance of getting beheaded.

[Buttons12]

Sorry Civ, didn’t see that. But a second clarification can’t hurt, since I may not be the only one here who is speed reading when they’re supposed to be working ;)

[skeeter]

What is particularly interesting is the effect the brief & remote border war Japan had with USSR in ‘39 had on the military’s eventual decision to settle on the IJN’s southern strategy, which was kicked off by the attack on PH.

[SunkenCiv]

Working, ew. I’ve got to do some of that later in the day.