Japanese Invasion of Manchuria
Overview
The Japanese Invasion of Manchuria and the Beginning of World War II
When did World War II begin? For the U.S. it began officially in 1941. For Europe in 1939. For Asia, and the world as a whole, it began with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 18 September 1931. While this invasion marked the beginning of World War II, for Japan it was another stage in the expansion of the Japanese empire which began with the Meiji Restoration. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria represented a new stage in Japanese expansion, growing out of the control of the Japanese government by chauvanistic nationalists and militarists with a vision of Japanese control over the eastern half of Asia and the Pacific Ocean out through the Hawaiian islands. Along with strategic importance of Manchuria to Japanese imperial ambitions, it also held useful resources for the Japanese economy.
Learning Objective
- Identify key features of Japanese politics and territorial expansion prior to the outbreak of World War II, including the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
- Explain why and how the Japanese invasion of Manchuria occurred, and assess the historic significance and impact of this invasion, particularly in World War II.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Kwantung Army - Japanese field army that invaded Manchuria in 1931, without the authorization of the Japanese government, an action that reflected the militarization of Japan
Manchukuo - puppet state created by the Kwantung Army
Manchurian Incident: a staged event engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the Japanese invasion in 1931 of northeastern China, known as Manchuria
League of Nations: an intergovernmental organization founded on January 10, 1920, as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War; the first international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals as stated in its Covenant included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.
Japan had been pursuing expansion into Manchuria since the 1890s, defeating China in 1895 and Russia in 1905 in limited wars as part of these efforts. On 18 September 1931 the Japanese force in Manchuria, the Kwantung Army, invaded Manchuria on the pretense of protecting Japanese interests in Manchuria. Manchuria was then under Chinese control, but Japan held certain interests within Manchuria by various treaties. The Kwantung Army had been formed in 1906 as part of the effort to expand the Japanese presence in northeast Asia. Kwantung refers to the territory in Manchuria that Japan took from China in the 1894-5 war.
To provide an excuse for invading Manchuria on September 18, members of the Kwantung Army blew up a small section of the South Manchurian Railway, for which the Kwantung Army had responsibility, otherwise known as the Manchurian Incident. The Kwantung Army then carried out a campaign to take control of Manchuria, which ended successfully for the Kwantung Army in February 1932. The Kwantung Army then created the puppet state of Manchukuo to legitimize its conquest, placing the last Chinese emperor, Puyi, on its throne.
Along with initiating World War II, this invasion marked the militarists taking control of the Japanese government. The Kwantung Army carried out the conquest of Manchuria without the authorization of the Japanese government. Because of the growing strength of nationalistic and militaristic army and navy officers within the Japanese government during the twenties and early thirties, and because of the constitutional requirement that the army and the navy be represented in the Japanese cabinet, the civilian government not only had to accept the Kwantung Army's invasion of Manchuria, it also had to support the Army's and the Navy's program for expanding the Japanese Army. Tragically, in the classic and literal definition of this word, militarists remained in control of the Japanese government and the Japanese war effort until the detonation of a second atomic bomb over Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, ending Japan's war.
Along with marking the beginning of World War II, the Kwantung Army's invasion of Manchuria also contributed to the end of the League of Nations. In response to this invasion the League formed the Lytton Commission, named after the British politician and lord who led it, to investigate. The Commission released its report in October 1932, stating that Japan was the aggressor, the invasion had been wrong, and Manchuria should be returned to China. In March 1933 Japan formally withdrew from the League, further weakening it then already in decline.
The Japanese Invasion of China and the Second Sino-Japanese War, 1937-41
By 1937, Japan controlled Manchuria and it was also ready to move deeper into China. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 provoked full-scale war between China and Japan, known as the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communists suspended the civil war they were then engaged in so that they could form a nominal alliance against Japan. And the Soviet Union quickly lent support to Chinese troops by providing large amounts of material.
Learning Objectives
- Identify key features of Japanese politics and territorial expansion prior to the outbreak of World War II, including the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
- Assess the historic significance and impact of the Second Sino-Japanese War
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Second Sino-Japanese War: 1937-45 War between China and Japan that was one of the component wars of World War II
Chiang Kai-shek: leader of Chinese Nationalist forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War
Nanjing Massacre - Japanese mass murder of an estimated 200,000 Chinese in December 1937 through January 1938 after the Japanese capture of that city
In August 1937, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to fight about 300,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, but, after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December 1937, where they conducted the Nanjing Massacre.
In March 1938, Chinese Nationalist forces won their first victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May. In June 1938, Japan deployed about 350,000 troops to invade Wuhan and captured it in October. The Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinion at the time—in particular in the United States—condemned Japan, especially after the Panay incident.
In 1939, Japanese forces tried to push into the Soviet Far East from Manchuria. They were soundly defeated in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol by a mixed Soviet and Mongolian force led by Georgy Zhukov. This stopped Japanese expansion to the north; meanwhile, Soviet aid to China ended as a result of the signing of the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact at the beginning of its war against Germany.
In September 1940, Japan decided to cut China's only land line to the outside world by seizing French Indochina, which was controlled at the time by Vichy France. Japanese forces broke their agreement with the Vichy administration and fighting broke out, ending in a Japanese victory. On 27 September 1940 Japan signed a military alliance with Germany and Italy, becoming one of the three main Axis Powers.
The war entered a new phase with the unprecedented defeat of the Japanese at the Battle of Suixian–Zaoyang, 1st Battle of Changsha, Battle of Kunlun Pass, and Battle of Zaoyi. After these victories, Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale counter-offensive in early 1940; however, due to its low military-industrial capacity, China was repulsed by the Imperial Japanese Army in late March 1940. In August 1940, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted the "Three Alls Policy" ("Kill all, Burn all, Loot all") in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.
By 1941 the conflict had become a stalemate. Although Japan had occupied much of northern, central, and coastal China, the Nationalist Government had retreated to the interior with a provisional capital set up at Chungking, while the Chinese communists remained in control of base areas in Shaanxi. In addition, Japanese control of northern and central China was somewhat tenuous, in that Japan was usually able to control railroads and the major cities ("points and lines"), but did not have a major military or administrative presence in the vast Chinese countryside. The Japanese found its aggression against the retreating and regrouping Chinese army was stalled by the mountainous terrain in southwestern China, while the Communists organized widespread guerrilla and saboteur activities in northern and eastern China behind the Japanese front line.
Japan sponsored several puppet governments. However, Japanese policies of brutality toward the Chinese population, of not yielding any real power to these regimes, and of supporting several rival governments failed to make any of them a viable alternative to the Nationalist government led by Chiang Kai-shek. Conflicts between Chinese Communist and Nationalist forces vying for territory control behind enemy lines culminated in a major armed clash in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation.
Japanese strategic bombing efforts mostly targeted large Chinese cities, such as Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chongqing, with around 5,000 raids from February 1938 to August 1943 in the latter case. Japan's strategic bombing campaigns devastated Chinese cities extensively, killing 260,000 – 350,934 non-combatants.
Attributions
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Title Image - Japanese troops entering Tsitsihar, 19 November 1932. Attribution: English: Osaka Mainichi war cameramen日本語: 大阪毎日従軍寫眞班撮影, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Provided by: Wikipedia Commons. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese_troops_entering_Tsitsihar.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Wikipedia
"Japanese Invasion of Manchuria"
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