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As the dominant foreign power in Manchuria, Japan watched the political developments of the Chinese territory of Manchuria closely. During this time, the political situation in China was in turmoil. The power vacuum left by the overthrown Qing Dynasty divided China among regional warlords. One of such warlords was Zhang Zuolin, whose firm anti-Japanese stance led to his assassination in Jun 1928 by Colonel Daisaku Komoto's men in 1928; Japan in turn supported the slain warlord's son Zhang Xueliang, who was perceived to be a weak individual because of his opium addiction, to assume power. To the surprise of the Japanese, the younger Zhang were firmly nationalistic and publicly denounced Japanese influence in Manchuria. When he ended the conflict between his troops and Chiang Kaishek's Nationalist Party troops, then allied himself with Chiang, and furthermore executed his pro-Japanese officials, the Japanese Kwantung Army leaders were ready to apply direct force. Manchuria, with its rich natural resources and strategic location against Russia, was of critical importance to Japan.

In the summer of 1931, during an incident that was later named Wanbaoshan Incident, 200 Korean immigrants were told by Chinese police to return to Korea, the Koreans were backed by Japanese police. Chinese farmers, unwilling to share irrigable land with the immigrants, attacked them, and was fired upon by Japanese police. Around the same time, Japanese Army intelligence officer Captain Shintaro Nakamura was captured and executed by the Chinese on the border of Inner Mongolia or near Mukden, upsetting Japanese Kwantung Army command.

Kwantung Army Colonel Seishiro Itagaki and Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara, who had been looking for the excuse to occupy Manchuria for Japan, devised a plan to invade Manchuria. Ishiwara presented the plan at the Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo, and it was approved to be launched but only following a major incident started by the Chinese. IGHQ had little or no idea that Itagaki and Ishiwara was about to embark on instigating such an incident. Originally, they enlisted the help of Colonel Kenji Doihara to worsen Sino-Japanese relations, but Doihara was recalled by Tokyo for his undiplomatic conduct. Additionally, Minister of War Jiro Minami dispatched Major General Yoshitsugu Tatekawa to Manchuria for the specific purpose of curbing the militarist behavior of the Kwantung Army. Itagaki and Ishiwara knew that once Tatekawa arrived, the continuation of their plan would become difficult, therefore they no longer had the luxury of waiting for the Chinese to answer to their provocation; they must now stage their own.

Tatekawa arrived in Mukden at 1900 on 18 Sep 1931, and was distracted by Itagaki who entertained him at a teahouse. At 2200, Lieutenant Suemori Komoto planted explosives on the Japanese-controlled South Manchurian Railway line at Liutiaokuo, north of Mukden. The explosion did little damage, and the use of the rails was restored only twenty minutes later. Nevertheless, the Independent Garrison Force of the Japanese 29th Infantry Regiment was dispatched to attack the Chinese barracks in Mukden. At 2230, Tatekawa was informed of the incident by Itagaki's men and reported to Tokyo as per Itagaki's version of the story. Unable to compete with Kwantung Army's firepower, the Chinese garrison at Mukden withdrew. Meanwhile, at Port Arthur, Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army General Shigeru Honjo was at first appalled that the invasion plan was enacted without his permission, but was eventually convinced by Ishiwara to give his approval after-the-fact. Honjo moved the Kwantung Army headquarters to Mukden, and ordered General Senjuro Hayashi of the Japanese Chosun Army in Korea to send in reinforcements to bolster the defenses at Mukden. At 0400 on 19 Sep, Mukden was declared secure. By daylight, aircraft from the Chosun Army were landing at Mukden airport.

Within the following weeks, Japanese troops occupied all of Manchuria. Although Japan denied that members of her military instigated the event and promised to the League of Nations that troops would be withdrawn, no official orders were given to withdraw from Chinese territory. Instead, plans were put forth to establish a puppet state in Manchuria. Such plan came to fruition on 18 Feb 1932 when Manchukuo, or the Great Manchu State, was established under the puppet leader Puyi, first as Chief Executive, then Emperor in 1934. Puyi, an ethnically-Manchurian Chinese, was deposed twenty years earlier as the last Emperor of China, and had longed to regain the luxurious life he had lived as a young Emperor. The city of Changchun, renamed Xinjing, was the capital of Puyi's new nation that no one in the world recognized except for the Japanese-controlled puppet Chinese government in Nanjing, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and the Vatican. On 25 Mar 1933, in addition to condemning Japan for hostilities in Shanghai, the League of Nations refused to recognize Manchukuo as a legitimate government. As a result, Japanese delegates walked out of the League of Nations.

As a potential base to launch an invasion into China and Russia, Japan asserted absolute control over Manchukuo. Puyi was in every aspect a mere puppet, being forced to declare Shinto the national religion, and dictated under Japanese pressure that the Japanese language was to be taught in all Manchukuo schools. Puyi's ministers, while all Chinese, were controlled by their Japanese deputies who in actuality were the real decision makers. Nevertheless, the strict Japanese control also transformed Manchuria into an industrial powerhouse. During the course of the war, entire blast furnaces were brought over from Japan so that Japan's steel-making centers could be closer to the coal and raw iron ore found in Manchuria. It was facilities like this that would eventually give Mao Zedong the industrial capability he needed to defeat Chiang Kaishek's Nationalists after the war when the Communists took refuge in this region.

Five years after the establishment of Manchukuo, the Japanese Kwantung Army would invade China from this puppet state.

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   25 Sep 2009 01:07:46 AM
   
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