The South Manchuria Railway Zone and the Korean Peninsula had been under the control of the Japanese Empire since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Japan's ongoing industrialization and militarization ensured their growing dependence on oil and metal imports from the US.[3] The US sanctions which prevented trade with the United States (which had occupied the Philippines around the same time) resulted in Japan furthering its expansion in the territory of China and Southeast Asia.[4] The invasion of Manchuria,or the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937,are sometimes cited as alternative starting dates for World War II,in contrast with the more commonly accepted date of September 1,1939.[5]
With the invasion having attracted great international attention,the League of Nations produced the Lytton Commission (headed by British politician Victor Bulwer-Lytton) to evaluate the situation,with the organization delivering its findings in October 1932. Its findings and recommendations that the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo not be recognized and the return of Manchuria to Chinese sovereignty prompted the Japanese government to withdraw from the League entirely.
Japanese soldiers of 29th Regiment on the Mukden West Gate
A minor dispute known as the Wanpaoshan incident between Chinese and Korean farmers occurred on July 1,1931. The issue was highly sensationalized in the Imperial Japanese and Korean press,and used for considerable propaganda effect to increase anti-Chinese sentiment in the Empire of Japan. Next,on 18 September 1931,was the Mukden Incident,which was later revealed to be a false flag attack.
Believing that a conflict in Manchuria would be in the best interests of Japan,and acting in the spirit of the Japanese concept of gekokujō,Kwantung Army Colonel SeishirōItagaki and Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara independently devised a plan to provoke Japan into invading Manchuria by setting up a false flag incident for the pretext of invasion.
The operation was originally planned to be executed on 28 September,but the date was changed to September 18[citation needed]. When 1st Lieutenant Suemori Komoto of the Independent Garrison Unit (独立守備隊) of the 29th Infantry Regiment (which guarded the South Manchuria Railway) placed explosives near the tracks,but far enough away to do no real damage. At around 10:20 pm (22:20) on September 18,the explosives were detonated. However,the explosion was minor and only a 1.5-meter section on one side of the rail was damaged. In fact,a train from Changchun passed by the site on this damaged track without difficulty and arrived at Shenyang at 10:30 pm (22:30).[6]
On the morning of September 19,two artillery pieces installed at the Shenyang officers' club opened fire on the Chinese garrison nearby,in response to the alleged Chinese attack on the railway. Zhang Xueliang's small air force was destroyed,and his soldiers fled their destroyed Beidaying barracks,as five hundred Japanese troops attacked the Chinese garrison of around seven thousand. The Chinese troops were no match for the experienced Japanese troops. By the evening,the fighting was over,and the Japanese had occupied Shenyang at the cost of five hundred Chinese lives and only two Japanese lives,thus starting the greater invasion of Manchuria.
In early 1932 there was the January 28 incident 1932 in Shanghai,then in May 1932,the Japanese Prime Minister was assassinated (this reduced civilian oriented rule in Japan).
Initial annexation
On September 18,1931,the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters,which had decided upon a policy of localizing the incident,communicated its decision to the Kwantung Army command. However,Kwantung Army commander-in-chief General Shigeru Honjō instead ordered his forces to proceed to expand operations all along the South Manchuria Railway. On the early morning of 19 September,the 29th Infantry Regiment entered Mukden and overwhelmed the resisting Chinese forces,seizing the inner walled city.[7] At the same time,the 2nd Battalion occupied Pei Ta Ying,having faced stubborn resistance,before moving on to Tung Ta Ying.[7] Afterwards,the 2nd Division was also dispatched and drove out the remaining Chinese troops from the eastern area of Mukden.[7] Meanwhile,the 1st Battalion engaged the Chinese forces at Kuan Cheng Tze,near Changchun.[7] On the same day,in response to General Honjō's request,the Chōsen Army in Korea under General SenjūrōHayashi ordered the 20th Infantry Division to split its force,forming the 39th Mixed Brigade,which departed on that day for Manchuria without authorization from the Emperor. By the end of September 19,the Japanese occupied Yingkou,Liaoyang,Shenyang,Fushun,Dandong,Siping (Jilin Province),and Changchun. The following day,the commander of the Chinese 2nd Army,Wan Shu Cheng,ordered the withdrawal of the 44th and 643rd Regiments,which were then stationed at Taching,back to Tientsin.[7]
On September 21,the Japanese captured Jilin City. On 23 September,the Japanese took Jiaohe (Jilin Province) and Dunhua. On 26 September,the Governor of Kirin,Zhang Zuoxiang,was deposed and the "Provisional Provincial Government of Kirin" declared with Xi Qia as acting chairman.[8] This new government was friendly to the Japanese and allowed them to occupy Kirin city bloodlessly.[8] Most other provincial officials were maintained in their previous positions.[8] On 1 October,Zhang Haipeng surrendered the Taonan area. Sometime in October,Ji Xing (吉興) surrendered the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture area[9] and on 17 October,Yu Zhishan surrendered Eastern Liaoning to the Japanese.
Tokyo was shocked by the news of the Army acting without orders from the central government. The Japanese civilian government was thrown into disarray by this act of "gekokujō" insubordination,but as reports of one quick victory after another began to arrive,it felt powerless to oppose the Army,and its decision was to immediately send three more infantry divisions from Japan,beginning with the 14th Mixed Brigade of the IJA 7th Division.[when?] During this era,the elected government could be held hostage by the Army and Navy,since Army and Navy members were constitutionally necessary for the formation of cabinets. Without their support,the government would collapse.
Secession movements
After the Liaoning Provincial government fled Mukden,it was replaced by a "Peoples Preservation Committee" which declared the secession of Liaoning province from the Republic of China. Other secessionist movements were organized in Japanese-occupied Kirin by General Xi Qia head of the Manchukuo Imperial Army,and at Harbin,by General Chang Ching-hui. In early October,at Taonan in northwest Liaoning province,General Zhang Haipeng declared his district independent of China,in return for a shipment of a large number of military supplies by the Japanese Army.
On October 13,Zhang Haipeng ordered three regiments of the Manchukuo Imperial Army under General Xu Jinglong north to take the capital of Heilongjiang province at Qiqihar. Some elements in the city offered to surrender the old walled town peacefully,and Chang advanced cautiously to accept. However his advance guard was attacked by General Dou Lianfang's troops,and in a savage fight with an engineering company defending the north bank,were sent fleeing with heavy losses. During this fight,the Nenjiang railroad bridge was dynamited by troops loyal to General Ma Zhanshan to prevent its use.
Using the repair of the Nen River Bridge as the pretext,the Japanese sent a repair party in early November under the protection of Japanese troops. Fighting erupted between the Japanese forces and troops loyal to the acting governor of Heilongjiang province Muslim General Ma Zhanshan,who chose to disobey the Kuomintang government's ban on further resistance to the Japanese invasion.
Despite his failure to hold the bridge,General Ma Zhanshan became a national hero in China for his resistance at Nenjiang Bridge,which was widely reported in the Chinese and international press. The publicity inspired more volunteers to enlist in the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies.
The repaired bridge made possible the further advance of Japanese forces and their armored trains. Additional troops from Japan,notably the 4th Mixed Brigade from the 8th Division,were sent in November.
On November 15,1931,despite having lost more than 400 men and 300 left wounded since 5 November,General Ma declined a Japanese ultimatum to surrender Qiqihar. On 17 November,in subzero weather,3,500 Japanese troops,under the command of JirōTamon,mounted an attack,forcing General Ma from Qiqihar by 19 November.
In late November 1931,General Honjōdispatched 10,000 soldiers in 13 armored trains,escorted by a squadron of bombers,in an advance on Chinchow from Mukden. This force had advanced to within 30 kilometres (19mi) of Chinchow when it received an order to withdraw. The operation was cancelled by Japanese War Minister General JirōMinami,due to the acceptance of modified form of a League of Nations proposal for a "neutral zone" to be established as a buffer zone between China proper and Manchuria pending a future Chinese-Japanese peace conference by the civilian government of Prime Minister Baron Wakatsuki in Tokyo.
However,the two sides failed to reach a lasting agreement. The Wakatsuki government soon fell and was replaced by a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. Further negotiations with the Kuomintang government failed,the Japanese government authorized the reinforcement of troops in Manchuria. In December,the rest of 20th Infantry Division,along with the 38th Mixed Brigade from the 19th Infantry Division were sent into Manchuria from Korea while the 8th Mixed Brigade from the 10th Infantry Division was sent from Japan. The total strength of the Kwantung Army was thus increased to around 60,450 men.[citation needed]
With this stronger force,the Japanese Army announced on December 21,the beginning of large-scale anti-bandit operations in Manchuria to quell a growing resistance movement by the local Chinese population in Liaoning and Kirin provinces.
On December 28,a new government was formed in China after all members of the old Nanjing government resigned. This threw the military command into turmoil,and the Chinese army retreated to the west of the Great Wall into Hebei province,a humiliating move which lowered China's international image.[10] Japanese forces occupied Chinchow on January 3,1932,after the Chinese defenders retreated without giving combat.
With southern Manchuria secure,the Japanese turned north to complete the occupation of Manchuria. As negotiations with Generals Ma Zhanshan and Ding Chao to defect to the pro-Japanese side had failed,in early January Colonel Kenji Doihara requested collaborationist General Qia Xi to advance his forces and take Harbin.
The last major Chinese regular force in northern Manchuria was led by General Ding Chao who organized the defense of Harbin successfully against General Xi until the arrival of the Japanese 2nd Division under JirōTamon. Japanese forces took Harbin on February 4,1932.
By the end of February Ma had sought terms and joined the newly formed Manchukuo government as governor of Heilongjiang province and Minister of War.
On February 27,1932,Ding offered to cease hostilities,ending official Chinese resistance in Manchuria,although combat by guerrilla and irregular forces continued as Japan spent many years in their campaign to pacify Manchukuo.
The conquest of Manchuria,a land rich in natural resources,was widely seen as an economic "lifeline" to save Japan from the effects of the Great Depression,generating much public support.[11] The American historian Louise Young described Japan from September 1931 to the spring of 1933 as gripped by "war fever" as the conquest of Manchuria proved to be an extremely popular war.[12] The metaphor of a "lifeline" suggested that Manchuria was crucial to the functioning of the Japanese economy,which explains why the conquest of Manchuria was so popular and why afterwards Japanese public opinion was so hostile towards any suggestion of letting Manchuria go.[13]
At the time,censorship in Japan was nowhere near as stringent as it later became,and Young noted:"Had they wished,it would have been possible in 1931 and 1932 for journalists and editors to express anti-war sentiments".[14] The liberal journal Kaizō criticized the war with the journalist GotōShinobu in the November 1931 edition accusing the Kwantung Army of a "two-fold coup d'état" against both the government in Tokyo and against the government of China.[14] Voices like Kaizō were a minority as mainstream newspapers like the Asahi soon discovered that an anti-war editorial position hurt sales,and so switched over to an aggressively militaristic editorial position as the best way to increase sales.[14] Japan's most famous pacifist,the poet Akiko Yosano had caused a sensation in 1904 with her anti-war poem "Brother Do Not Give Your Life",addressed to her younger brother serving in the Imperial Army that called the war with Russia stupid and senseless.[15] Such was the extent of "war fever" in Japan in 1931 that even Akiko succumbed,writing a poem in 1932 praising bushidō,urging the Kwantung Army to "smash the sissified dreams of compromise" and declared that to die for the Emperor in battle was the "purest" act a Japanese man could perform.[15]
External effect
The Western media reported on the events with accounts of atrocities such as bombing civilians or firing upon shell-shocked survivors.[16] It aroused considerable antipathy to Japan,which lasted until the end of World War II.[16]
When the Lytton Commission issued a report on the invasion,despite its statements that China had to a certain extent provoked Japan,and China's sovereignty over Manchuria was not absolute,Japan took it as an unacceptable rebuke and withdrew from the already declining League of Nations,which also helped create international isolation.[17]
The Manchurian Crisis had a significant negative effect on the moral strength and influence of the League of Nations. As critics had predicted,the League was powerless if a strong nation decided to pursue an aggressive policy against other countries,allowing a country such as Japan to commit blatant aggression without serious consequences. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were also aware of this,and ultimately both followed Japan's example in aggression against their neighbors:in the case of Italy,against Abyssinia (1935–7);and Germany,against Czechoslovakia (1938–9) and Poland (1939).[18]
The Mukden incident was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
The defense of the Great Wall was a campaign between the armies of Republic of China and Empire of Japan,which took place before the Second Sino-Japanese War officially commenced in 1937 and after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. It is known in Japanese as Operation Nekka and in many English sources as the First Battle of Hopei.
The following units and commanders fought in the Defense of the Great Wall of the Second Sino-Japanese War. List as of 20 March 1933.
Zhang Jinghui was a Chinese general,warlord and politician during the Warlord era. He is noted for his role in the Japanese puppet regime of Manchukuo in which he served as Prime Minister for most of its existence.
The Jiangqiao campaign was a series of battles and skirmishes occurring after the Mukden Incident,during the invasion of Manchuria by the Imperial Japanese Army,prior to the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Ma Zhanshan was a Chinese general famous for resisting the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Ma was placed in charge of the Northeastern Army in Heilongjiang Province during the invasion and ignored orders from the central government not to resist the Japanese. He became a national hero in China by fighting the unsuccessful but highly symbolic Jiangqiao campaign against the Kwantung Army's advance into Heilongjiang. After his defeat,he feigned defection to the Japanese and was appointed Minister of War in the new Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. He then joined and took command of the guerrilla campaign against Japanese occupation,taking with him large amounts of supplies,funds,and military intelligence. Ma Zhanshan rejoined the Northeastern Army after the guerrilla movement was largely defeated. He continued to oppose Chiang Kai-shek's policy of non-resistance and supported the Xi'an Incident that forced Chiang to form the Second United Front with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He commanded several units in the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War while covertly cooperating with the CCP. Ma avoided direct participation in the postwar Chinese Civil War and eventually defected to the Communists,dying a year later in 1950.
The Defense of Harbin occurred at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War,as part of the campaign of the Invasion of Manchuria by forces of the Empire of Japan from 25 January to 4 February 1932. The Japanese took the city only after a long battle in the freezing weather against the Chinese.
The Jinzhou Operation or Chinchow Operation was an operation in 1931 during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria,which was a preliminary,contributing factor to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
The Pacification of Manchukuo was a Japanese counterinsurgency campaign to suppress any armed resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo from various anti-Japanese volunteer armies in occupied Manchuria and later the Communist Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. The operations were carried out by the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army and the collaborationist forces of the Manchukuo government from March 1932 until 1942,and resulted in a Japanese victory.
The Northeast Counter-Japanese United Army,also known as the NAJUA or Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army,was the main Counter-Japanese guerrilla army in Northeast China (Manchuria) after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Its predecessors were various Counter-Japanese volunteer armies organized by locals and the Manchuria branches of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In February 1936,the CCP,in accordance with the instructions of the Communist International,issued The Declaration of the Unified Organization of Northeast Counter-Japanese United Army and marked the official formation of the organization.
The Jilin Self-Defence Army was an anti-Japanese volunteer army formed in 1931 to defend local Chinese residents against the Japanese invasion of northeast China. General Ding Chao,Li Du,Feng Zhanhai,Xing Zhanqing,and Zhao Yi organised the Jilin Self-Defence Army in order to prevent the fall and occupation of Harbin city,Jilin province. This brought all their forces under a unified command. Calling for civilians to form volunteer units and join in the defense of the city,the army reached a strength of 30,000 men in six brigades of Zhang Xueliangs Northeastern army.
Zhang Haipeng,was a Chinese Northeastern Army general,who went over to the Japanese during the Invasion of Manchuria and became a general in the Manchukuo Imperial Army of the State of Manchuria.
The Inner Mongolian campaign in the period from 1933 to 1936 were part of the ongoing invasion of northern China by the Empire of Japan prior to the official start of hostilities in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1931,the invasion of Manchuria secured the creation of the puppet state of Manchukuo and in 1933,Operation Nekka detached the province of Jehol/Rehe from the Republic of China. Blocked from further advance south by the Tanggu Truce,the Imperial Japanese Army turned its attention west,towards the Inner Mongolian provinces of Chahar and Suiyuan,with the goal of establishing a northern China buffer state. In order to avoid overt violation of the Truce,the Japanese government used proxy armies in these campaigns while Chinese resistance was at first only provided by Anti-Japanese resistance movement forces in Chahar. The former included in the Inner Mongolian Army,the Manchukuo Imperial Army,and the Grand Han Righteous Army. Chinese government forces were overtly hostile to the anti-Japanese resistance and resisted Japanese aggression only in Suiyuan in 1936.
Liu Guitang was a Chinese bandit and soldier,involved in the Japanese attempt to control Chahar province in 1933. Noted for switching sides several times and returning to banditry. Later,during the Second Sino-Japanese War,he commanded some Nanjing Government puppet troops.
Li Shouxin was a pro-Japanese commander in the Manchukuo Imperial Army and later the Mengjiang National Army.
Xi Qia or Xi Xia was a general in command of the Jilin Provincial Army of the Republic of China,who defected to the Japanese during the Invasion of Manchuria in 1931,and who subsequently served as a cabinet minister in Manchukuo.
Zang Shiyi was a Chinese general and Governor of Liaoning Province at the time of the invasion of Manchuria in 1932.
Men Bingyue was a general in the Chinese National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. As commander of the 7th Cavalry Division he participated in the Suiyuan Campaign in 1936,defeating the Japanese backed Inner Mongolian Army. After the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 he was made Commander of the 6th Cavalry Army,fighting in the Battle of Taiyuan defending Suiyuan. In 1940 he was made Deputy Commander in Chief of the 17th Army Group. In 1941,he was made Commander of the 7th Cavalry Army. He died in August 1944 in Chongqing.
Hongort is a town (镇) of the Chahar Right Back Banner,which in turn is part of Ulanqab prefecture-level city in Inner Mongolia,China. It is located about 30 km northwest of Shangdu county. In 2000,when it was still classified as township (乡),it had 11,860 inhabitants.
The Kwantung Army was a general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945.
↑ Walker, Michael (2017). The 1929 Sino-Soviet War: The War Nobody Knew. Modern War Studies. ISBN978-0700623754.
↑ Meyer, Michael (9 February 2016). In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN978-1620402887.
↑ Simkin, John (February 5, 2007). "Sterling and Peggy Seagrave: Gold Warriors". The Education Forum. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved June 13, 2008. Americans think of WW2 in Asia as having begun with Pearl Harbor, the British with the fall of Singapore, and so forth. The Chinese would correct this by identifying the Marco Polo Bridge incident as the start, or the Japanese seizure of Manchuria earlier.
↑ CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR INTERNATIONAL EVENTS FROM 1931 THROUGH 1943, WITH OSTENSIBLE REASONS ADVANCED FOR THE OCCURRENCE THEREOF 78th Congress, 2d Session. "An explosion undoubtedly occurred on or near the railroad between 10 and 10:30 p.m. on September 18th, but the damage, if any, to the railroad did not in fact prevent the punctual arrival of the south-bound train from Changchun, and was not in itself sufficient to justify military action. The military operations of the Japanese troops during this night, ... cannot be regarded as measures of legitimate self-defence..." [Opinion of Commission of Enquiry], ibid., p. 71
1 2 Meirion and Susie Harries, Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army p 161 ISBN0-394-56935-0
↑ Meirion and Susie Harries, Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army p 163 ISBN0-394-56935-0
↑ Ben Walsh, GCSE Modern World History - second edition 2001, p 247 ISBN978-0719577130
Sources
Thorne, Christopher. "Viscount Cecil, the Government and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1931." Historical Journal 14, no. 4 (1971): 805–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638108 online].
Coogan, Anthony (1994). Northeast China and the Origins of the Anti-Japanese United Front. Modern China, Vol. 20, No. 3 (July 1994), pp. 282-314: Sage Publications.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Matsusaka, Yoshihisa Tak (2003). The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-1932. Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN978-0-674-01206-6.
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China 
Shigeru Honjō 
Puyi 
Zhang Xueliang 
