Manchurian Crisis
The Manchurian Crisis 1931-1933 followed the Mukden Incident in which Japanese rail
tracks were destroyed in an explosion. Claiming that it was saboteurs, the Japanese
responded with force, taking control of the Chinese province of Manchuria. The issue was
investigated by the League of Nations which found Japan to be at fault. The Japanese
ignored the League of Nations and left the organisation. The province was not returned to
Chinese rule until the end of the Second World War.
Cartoon by David Low showing the perceived weakness of the League of Nations
After the Wall Street Crash the US government introduced tariffs to protect her industry
from Japanese competition. The tariffs had a huge impact of Japanese industry and led
to high unemployment. As the economic situation got worse army leaders voiced their
opinion that the only way in which Japan could solve its economic problems and show
that it was still a strong nation was through expansion. The Japanese already had a
colony on the Asian mainland and were highly influential in several areas, particularly
a Chinese province called Manchuria.
Manchuria was the source of much of Japans imported raw materials such as coal and
iron ore. In September 1931 the Japanese owned railroad from Manchuria to the coast
was vandalised at Mukden.
The Mukden Incident and the Invasion of Manchuria
The Japanese Imperial Army had the permission of the Japanese government to launch
retaliatory actions if the Chinese attacked any Japanese property in the area. As a result,
Japanese troops responded to the explosion at Mukden by attacking the
nearby Chinese Garrison, taking and securing it with ease as the Chinese government
had ordered troops in the area not to resist any attacks by Japanese troops in this area.
The Incident was a masterstroke by Japanese officers determined to begin the process of
territorial expansion. The explosion at Mukden was very probably staged by Japanese
troops to enable a retaliatory attack. Following the seizure of Mukden Japanese troops
began occupying other towns and cities in the area. Within 5 months the whole of
Manchuria was under the control of the Japanese army.
The Chinese Response to the Invasion of Manchuria
The policy of the Chinese Government at the time of the Mukden Incident was one of
non resistance towards Japanese troops in this area. This was primarily because they
wanted to concentrate their efforts on defeating Communism in China and securing a
strong and stable government. As a consequence the small Japanese force of some
11,000 men were able to take control of much of Manchuria very easily, despite the
presence of a quarter of a million Chinese troops in the area.
The Lytton Commission was established by the League of Nations to investigate the explosions.
Investigators are shown here at the blast point.
In order to try and retain control of Manchuria the Chinese appealed to the League of
Nations. In October the League of Nations passed a resolution saying that Japanese
troops should withdraw and established a commission which would investigate the
claims of both sides. The Japanese rejected the League of Nations resolution and
insisted on direct negotiations with the Chinese Government. These negotiations failed
and the Japanese proceeded, now against some resistance, to take control of the
remainder of Manchuria. They then proceeded to launch an attack on the Chinese city of
Shanghai which was outside of the area of Japanese economic control.
The League of Nations response to the Manchurian Crisis
The initial response of the League of Nations was to follow its pre-arranged process
for arbitration. They listened to the complaints of the Chinese and the Japanese position
and then the Council, minus the representatives of China and Japan, discussed the issue
before coming up with a Resolution. In this case the resolution called for Japanese
withdrawal from Manchuria whilst a Commission investigated the issue.
The Japanese ignored the wishes of the League of Nations and continued to expand
whilst negotiations and diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis continued.
When the commission produced its report on Manchuria in October 1932 it stated that
Japan should leave Manchuria. A Special Assembly of the League of Nations was then
held to vote on the issue in February 1933. When the vote reiterated that Japan should
leave Manchuria, the Japanese delegation simply walked out of the League of Nations,
never to return.
What happened next?
According to the League of Nations rules the failure of Japan to comply with a resolution
should have been followed by economic sanctions and / or collectivemilitary action to
enforce the resolution. The League in this case however, did neither. Countries could not
agree on what economic sanctions should be imposed and the major powers of Britain
and France were unwilling to risk their armed forces in a conflict on the other side of the
world. Moreover, such action may have placed British and French Colonies in the Far
East at risk of attack.
Manchuria IGCSE History
1. 1. Manchuria
2. 2. Manchuria • The Nationalist government of China led by Chiang Kai-shek was weak,
corrupt and busy fighting the Communists. • Because of the Great Depression, Japan
wanted to build an empire to secure supplies of raw materials. • The Japanese government
was controlled by the army • China ruled Manchuria, but the Japanese army ran the railway
there, and ruled in Korea.
3. 3. Manchuria
4. 4. Manchuria • Sept 1931: There was some vandalism on the Manchurian railway; Japan
claimed the Chinese had sabotaged the railway. • They invaded Manchuria and set up the
'independent' (i.e. Japanese-controlled) state of Manchukuo under the former Emperor of
China, Henry P'ui. • China appealed to the League.
5. 5. Manchuria • Dec 1931: the League appointed a commission led by Lord Lytton to
investigate. • He did not go to Manchuria until April 1932 and did not report until October.
• Oct 1932: Lytton's report stated that Japan was the aggressor and should leave. • 24
Feb 1933: The Assembly voted that Japan should leave Manchuria • Japan walked out of
the meeting.
6. 6. Manchuria • Japan stayed in Manchuria. • The League could not agree economic
sanctions or an arms sales ban. • In 1933 Japan resigned from the League, and invaded/
conquered Jehol (next to Manchuria).
7. 7. Manchuria A SPECTACULAR failure: 1. The Japanese continued to expand: • they kept
Manchuria • they invaded Jehol in 1933 and China in 1937.
8. 8. Manchuria A SPECTACULAR failure: 2. The League was discredited/ Manchuria showed:
• It was slow (the Lytton Report took almost a year) • A country could get its own way if
it ignored it • ‘Collective security' was useless against big countries - especially during the
Great Depression. • Even the great powers within the League (Japan was on the Council)
were happy to ignore it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E6MhEQm88o&feature=emb_logo
Manchurian Crisis 1931-33
In 1931, the Japanese Empire controlled the South Manchuria Railway. In the September the
Japanese claimed that the Chinese had sabotaged the railway. Using this pretense the Japanese
army invaded and over ran Manchuria with Japanese forces. They removed the Chinese
defensive forces and renamed the area Manchukuo. In Manchukuo they created a puppet
government which would do as Japan commanded.
China appealed directly to the League of Nations for support in the matter, as part of their
territory had been invaded by Japan. The League sent officials to Manchuria, but the journey was
long, it took a significant amount of time for the officials to arrive. It was therefore, an entire
year before the League was able to publish the report in to the situation in Manchuria. The report
itself was detailed and declared that Japan was in the wrong.
Japan should have then withdrawn from Manchuria, but instead decided it was going to continue
the invasion of China. Japan’s argument was still one of self defence, and argued that it was
necessary to protect itself from China. After the League voted to approve the report against
Japan, Japan left the League, withdrawing its support.
This removal of Japan was a major blow to the League. What remained attempted to enforce
economic sanctions against Japan, but were hampered by the fact that the biggest trading partner
was the United States, who were not in the League. Britain also undermined the efforts of the
League in punishing Japan as it wanted to keep good relations with the Japanese. Everytime the
League came close to decision it would be averted as the members did not want a war to happen.
The only countries who could do something about Japan were the Soviet Union or America, as
as neither of those were in the League, it was unlikely to happen. The Manchurian Crisis proved
to international observers such as Italy and Germany that the League was powerless to stop
international aggression
Key Facts & Summary

It was caused by the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, a Chinese
territory.
 It occurred after the Japanese Rail Company in Manchuria was attacked
and vandalised.
 Japan accused China of carrying out the attacks. However, it was
argued that the Japanese carried out the attack on themselves to justify
their occupation of Manchuria.
The Mukden (or Mukden or Manchuria) incident took place on September 18,
1931, in South Manchuria. It occurred when a section of railroad belonging to
the South Manchurian Railway Company of Japan, near Mukden (now
Shenyang), was destroyed. This attack was planned by the Japanese fearing
a unification of China under the leadership of the Kuomintang, perceived as a
threat against the Japanese establishment in the region.
The Japanese military accused the Chinese of perpetrating the attack, thus
giving the pretext for the immediate invasion of southern Manchuria by
Japanese troops. This resulted in the creation of the puppet state of
Manchukuo a few months later, under the theoretical authority of the exemperor of China, Puyi.
This "provoked" incident was not unique. Similar processes were used under
the leadership of General Tanaka between the late 1920s and the invasion of
the rest of China to try to justify Japanese expansionism in Asia.
In China, this incident was known as the incident of 9.18, or Li Tiao Gou
incident.
After the Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905), the Japanese Empire replaced
the Russian Empire as the dominant power in Manchuria. The Japanese
policy on China was confrontational throughout the 1930s. Until the
establishment of the Imperial Headquarters in 1937, the Japanese Kantogun
Army had some independence in Manchuria and northern China, both
concerning civilian government and military authority in Tokyo.
At the time, Emperor Shōwa and his advisers debated whether they should
conquer China militarily and establish a colonial-style power, or subjugate
China economically. The Japanese government wanted to maintain the
fragmentation of China, enabling them to deal with the different Chinese
factions, which were in open conflict with each other. For example, Japan's
intervention in the Jinan incident against the Kuomintang in its northern
expedition in 1928 to prevent a unification of China.
The Chinese strategy of the time followed a doctrine of non-resistance. The
aggressive strategy of the relatively independent Japanese military authority
in China, coupled with the Chinese government's non-resistance strategy, was
most likely the trigger for the Mukden incident.
Description
The goal of the young Japanese officers in Manchuria was to give a pretext
justifying the Japanese military invasion and the replacement of the Chinese
government in the region by a Japanese or puppet government. They chose
to sabotage a section of the railway near Liutaio Lake.
This area did not yet have an official name and was of no military significance
for either side, but it was eight hundred meters from the Chinese garrison of
Beidaying, stationed under the command of the young Marshal Zhang
Xueliang. The plan was for the explosion to attract the attention of Chinese
troops and then blame them for it as a pretext for a formal Japanese invasion.
To make the sabotage look more convincing as a Chinese attack on a
Japanese transport system and thus mask their intervention as a legitimate
measure of protection of a railway of industrial and economic importance, the
Japanese named it the Liutaogou site, or Liu Xiao Qiao, which means Liutaio
Trench and Liutaio Bridge. In reality, the site was only a portion of the railway
on a section of flat land. The location of the explosion allowed for minimal
damage (and therefore minimal repairs), in contrast to the consequences of
choosing a bridge.
It appeared that the direct initiative came from two officers, Colonel Seishirō
Itagaki and Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara of the Shimamoto Regiment, in
charge of guarding the railroad, and sappers placed the explosives under the
rails.
At approximately 10:20 pm, on September 18, the charge was detonated. The
explosion was minor, and only a 1.5-meter section on one side of the track
was damaged. In fact, a train from Changchun passed over the very site of
the explosion without any problem and reached Mukden at 22:30.
Consequences
Immediately after the explosion, the Japanese surrounded the nearby
Chinese garrison and attacked the troops stationed there under the pretext
that any Japanese property should be protected from the onslaught of
Chinese troops.
"There was no doubt that the Japanese government, faced with a fait
accompli, was powerless. The prime minister explained to the ruler that he
had ordered the Guandong army to return to its bases. For his part, the
Minister of War, Minami, sent "a telegram to Mukden in which he approved the
action [...] but also wished that the case did not take another scale".
The Guandong army activists decided to override it, and it was on their own
initiative that they launched the Changchun offensive on the 20th of the
month, triggering the invasion of Manchuria. The military had prevailed over
civil power, a situation that announced growing pressure of the military on
civilians during the 1930s (assassination of the Prime Minister in 1932, coup
attempt of 26 February 1936), until the Second World War.
Within a few days, the three provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning
(where Mukden is located) were taken by the Japanese. On November 20th a
conference of the Chinese government was set up. The Guangzhou faction of
the Kuomintang insisted that Chiang Kai-shek resign because of the failure in
Manchuria and the lack of serious resistance from Chinese troops. Chiang
resigned on December 15th. Sun Ke, son of Sun Yat-sen, took the post of
President of the Republic of China and vowed to defend Jinzhou, another city
of Liaoning, quickly lost in January 1932.
"If there was no doubt that the conspirators launched the incident on their own
initiative, the Japanese Government, and the Emperor himself, should not
have delayed to consider the new situation in Manchuria with serenity" and to
resume to their account the consequences of the invasion of Manchuria. On
February 18 1932, the state of Manchukuo was proclaimed on the territory of
Manchuria with Hsinking as its capital. Formally independent, it was in fact
only a Japanese protectorate. The instigators of the operation were promoted,
demonstrating that if the military conspirators had acted on their own initiative,
they had done so in a larger Japanese context, favourable to a policy of power
on the Asian continent.
The Japanese empire pursued its expansionist policy in China, triggering in
1937 the second Sino-Japanese War and in 1939 a failed attack on pro-Soviet
Mongolia at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol.
The government of Manchukuo remained in place under Japanese
administration until 15 August 1945, a few days after the outbreak of the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria.
Controversial
Various opinions still exist today about who dropped the bomb in Mukden. An
exhibition dedicated to the September 18 Mukden incident, presented by the
Chinese in the city, indicates that the bomb was set off by the Japanese. The
Yasukuni Shrine Museum in Tokyo, meanwhile, argues that the Chinese were
responsible. The Columbia Encyclopedia states that the truth is unknown.
That said, there are many indications that the Japanese Guandong Army was
responsible. While most members of this army denied having planted the
bomb, Major Hanaya confessed that the Japanese had made the plan and
dropped the bomb.
Modern time
The government of the People's Republic of China declared September 18
"National Day of Humiliation". The PRC government opened a memorial in
Shenyang that houses a historical exhibit on the Mukden Incident,
inaugurated on September 18 1991.
The exhibition mixes some historical pieces, including posters and
documents, with a dramatic educational re-enactment of the event including
the Japanese occupation that followed, the resistance of the Chinese
partisans, and the final liberation. The last room is dedicated to the
reconciliation of Japan and China. Japanese Premier Ryūtarō Hashimoto
visited the museum in 1997and it is one of the main tourist attractions of
Shenyang City.