Invasion of Manchuria

The invasion of Manchuria was a conflict fought between China and Japan in the region of Manchuria in north-east China. It lasted from 1931 until 1932 and was a key event in the origins of World War II in Asia.

Origins
China experienced a revolution in 1911, in which the nationalist alliance which became the Kuomintang overthrew the Emperor, Pu Yi. After obtaining power, the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, turned its attention to combating the growing communist movement filtering in from the Soviet Union to the north.

While China faced its own internal troubles, Japan emerged as an expansionist power on the continent. She sought to expand her Empire and gain control of China's natural resources. Woo suspected Japan had been preparing for war years before the events in Manchuria. Manchuria was eventually threatened by trade strangulation by the construction of a Russian railway connecting the Pacific port of Vladivostok to Europe. It was in this context that Japan made her move. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

The invasion
In 1931, the Japanese engineered a fight between the Chinese forces in the region to justify the invasion. They claimed the Chinese had attacked first. The Japanese went on to capture all of Manchuria. In 1932 (PROSE: Log 384) the occupation was completed after the region was organised into the puppet state of Manchukuo, ruled by Pu Yi. However, as Woo later pointed out to some young Japanese officers, this did not mean and end to hostilities between Japan and China. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

Japanese experiments
The Kwantung Army subjugated the peasant population of Manchuria and set them to work constructing the Zhong Ma fortress. Atrocities were committed to deter the peasants from attempting to escape and any who tried were immediately shot. Manchuria became a testing ground for experiments in biological warfare headed by the young Japanese military scientist Ishii Shiro. Using the peasants as test subjects, taking blood samples, dissecting people, and deliberately infecting them with bubonic plague, the Japanese sought to learn more about the human body and how they may weaponise germs. The date gathered allowed for the creation of biological weapons that the Japanese later deployed against China to devastating effect, before they surrendered to the Americans in 1945. (PROSE: Log 384)

Further conflict
Disputes over Manchuria/Manchukuo persisted between China and Japan throughout rest of the 1930s. (PROSE: The Year of Intelligent Tigers) Edward Grainger felt that the invasion of Manchuria demonstrated Japan's determination to dominate all of Asia. (PROSE: Log 384) Greater conflict threatened to engulf the continent after Chinese and Japanese troops clashed in Shanghai in 1932.

Having gained a foothold in northern China through the invasion, the Japanese army split into two factions following disagreements about the next steps to be taken. The Kodo Ha, controlled by the Sakura Kai, demanded further expansion into China beyond Manchukuo, while the Tosei Ha advocated a more cautious approach that adhered to the formal rules of engagement. The Kodo Ha held the loyalty of local commanders in Manchukuo and used them to assassinate a number of political ministers, including prime ministers, between 1933 and 1935 in order to undermine the Tosei Ha's approach. Despite the failure of a revolt in Tokyo by the Kodo Ha's supporters in February 1936, the faction held onto its control of the local Manchukuo commanders who, in July 1937, engineered another fight between the Chinese forces at Marco Polo Bridge. This moved the government onto a war footing, signaling the beginning of World War II in Asia.

The front lines were initially located on the frontier between Manchukuo and China. The Japanese launched air raids against Shanghai from Manchukuo simply to prove to the Chinese population that they could. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)