Manchurian Incident

David, Michael

In 1905, when the Russo Japanese War ended, Japan took Manchuria from Russia. Around the 1920’s, Japan was afraid that China would coalesce through the Kuomintang party and regain control over Manchuria. The Manchurian general Chang Hsüeh-liang, refused to help Japan construct railways and harbor facilities with Japan’s Southern Manchurian Railway. Then in 1931, the incident began when Lt. Kawamoto Suemori and his men detonated dynamite near the South Manchuria Railway. The explosion was made to blame Zhang Xueliang who was the general of the Republic of China. And since Japan blamed China for the explosion and said that it was an attack to Japan, Japan used this as a reason to invade Manchu and further China. Japan invaded and successfully took over Manchuria, Japan soon established a puppet government in Manchukuo.