Manchuria

 was a province in the north-east of China, bordering Russia to the north and Shangdong province to the south. In the early 20th century, it was threatened with trade strangulation by a new Russian railway stretching from Europe to the Pacific port of Vladivostok.

In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria in order to expand their Empire and gain control of China's natural resources, but also ostensibly to restore order to a China embroiled in a struggle between Nationalists and Communists, and to attract trade back to the region. After the invasion, Manchuria was reorganised into the puppet state of Manchukuo, ruled by the ousted Chinese Emperor Pu Yi. The Kwantung Army occupied the region and Kwantung Army Intelligence established itself at Hsinking. Chinese people continued to refer to the region as Manchuria. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

Peasants in Manchukuo were subjugated by the Kwantung Army and forced to work on the construction of Zhong Ma fortress, where Japanese military scientists sought to develop biological weapons. The Seventh Doctor and Edward Grainger travelled to the region in 1933 to rescue Mai Ling from the fortress (PROSE: Log 384)

As disputes over the province continued deeper into the 1930s, (PROSE: The Year of Intelligent Tigers) factions within the Imperial Japanese Army which favoured further expansion into China beyond Manchukuo provoked a fight at Marco Polo Bridge in July 1937, sparking World War II in Asia. The front lines opened up in Manchukuo as the Japanese Twelfth Army fought to advance south into Shangdong and towards Shanghai. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang) Towns and villages in Manchukuo suffered from Japanese chemical attacks from germ-ridden packages dropped throughout the region during the war. (PROSE: Log 384)