Manchukuo or Manchoukuo was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Manchuria that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. Its territory consisted of the lands seized in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and only received limited diplomatic recognition, primarily from states aligned with the Axis powers, with its existence widely regarded as illegitimate.
The region of Manchuria, present day Northeast China had historically been the homeland of the Manchu people, though by the 20th century they had long since become a minority in the region, with Han Chinese constituting by far the largest ethnic group. The Manchu-led Qing dynasty, which had governed China since the 17th century, was overthrown with the permanent abolition of the dynastic system in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, with Puyi, the final emperor of China, forced to abdicate at the age of six. In 1931, Manchuria was invaded and occupied by the Empire of Japan following the Mukden incident. A puppet government was set up the following year, with Puyi brought in by the Japanese to serve as its nominal regent, though he himself had no actual political power. Japanese officials ultimately made all pertinent decisions, and exercised total control over Puyi's court and personal safety. Upon Manchukuo's transition into a formal monarchy, Puyi was proclaimed as the emperor of Manchukuo.
The Japanese population of Manchuria increased dramatically during this period, largely due to Japan's efforts to resettle young, land-poor farmers from inner Japan. By 1945, more than a million Japanese people had settled within Manchukuo. The region's Korean population also increased during this period. Under vice-minister Nobusuke Kishi and the Manchurian Industrial Development Company, heavy industry was dramatically expanded using slave labor of the local populations. Manchukuo was the primary launching ground for further invasion of China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, beginning with the 1937 Marco Polo Bridge incident.
Regions in the western part of the country with large Mongolian populations were ruled under a slightly different system, reflecting the distinct traditions extant there. The southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, now the city of Dalian, continued to be ruled directly by Japan as the Kwantung Leased Territory until the end of the war.
The state was ultimately toppled at the end of World War II with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945; its government was formally dissolved following the surrender of Japan in September. The territory was transferred to Chinese administration the following year.
Names Manchukuo was most consistently referred to by its government as Manchoukuo (from ) in English. Manchou, originally the Chinese ethnonym for the Manchu people, took on a geographic sense due to foreign and especially Japanese influence in the 19th century. Manchuria was used as a gloss for Manchou, and in the country's declaration of independence, "State of Manchuria" was used as a gloss for Manchoukuo; at the League of Nations it was called the State of Manchoukuo.
Following Puyi's proclamation as Emperor in 1934, Manchoutikuo () or the 'Empire of Manchou' were designated as the official English names, with Manchou Empire and 'Manchoukuo' as "abbreviated" forms. In spite of this, the 'abbreviated' form of Manchoukuo was used far more often than the 'unabbreviated' forms.
In Chinese, the name of Manchukuo has often been prefixed with to stress its perceived illegitimacy.
History Background
The Qing dynasty was founded in the 17th century by Manchus hailing from northeastern China, conquering the ethnically Han Shun and Ming dynasties. The Qing stated explicitly in various edicts, as well as within the Treaty of Nerchinsk, that the Manchu home provinces belonged to China.
As the power of the court in Beijing weakened, many of the empire's outlying areas either broke free (such as Kashgar) or fell under the control of the Western imperialist powers. The Russian Empire had set its sights on Qing's northern territories, and through unequal treaties signed in 1858 and 1860 ultimately annexed huge tracts of territory adjoining the Amur River outright, now known collectively as Outer Manchuria. As the Qing continued to weaken, Russia made further efforts to take control of the rest of Manchuria. By the 1890s, the region was under strong Russian influence, symbolized by the Russian-built Chinese Eastern Railway that ran from Harbin to Vladivostok.
The Japanese ultra-nationalist Black Dragon Society initially supported Sun Yat-sen's activities against the Qing state, hoping that an overthrow of the Qing would enable a Japanese takeover of the Manchu homeland, with the belief that Han Chinese would not oppose it. Tōyama Mitsuru, who was the Society's leader as well as a member of the pan-Asian secret society Gen'yōsha, additionally believed that the anti-Qing revolutionaries would even aid the Japanese in taking over, as well as helping them to enlarge the opium trade that the Qing were currently trying to destroy. The Society would support Sun and other anti-Manchu revolutionaries until the Qing ultimately collapsed. In Japan, many anti-Qing revolutionaries gathered in exile, where they founded and operated the Tongmenghui resistance movement, whose first meeting was hosted by the Black Dragon Society. The Black Dragon Society had a large impact on Sun specifically, cultivating an intimate relationship with him. Sun often promoted pan-Asianism, and sometimes even passed himself off as Japanese. In the wake of the 1911 Revolution, the Black Dragons began infiltrating China, making inroads selling opium and spreading anti-communist ideas. Eventually, they also began directly agitating for a Japanese takeover of Manchuria.
With the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese influence largely replaced that of Russia in Manchuria. Japan had mobilized one million soldiers to fight the Russians in Manchuria, one for every eight Japanese families. Despite shocking success, the Japanese military underwent heavy losses, ultimately incurring about 500,000 casualties. The war caused many Japanese people to develop a more possessive attitude towards Manchuria, with Japan having sacrificed so much while fighting in Manchurian territory. From 1905 on, Japanese publications often described Manchuria as a "sacred" and "holy" land where many Japanese had died as martyrs. The war had almost bankrupted Japan, forcing the Japanese to accept the compromise Treaty of Portsmouth mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt of the United States, under which Japan made gains, but nowhere to the extent that the Japanese public had been expecting. The Treaty of Portsmouth set off an anti-American riot in Tokyo between 5–7 September 1905 as the general viewpoint in Japan was that the Japanese had won the war but lost the peace. The perception in Japan was the Treaty of Portsmouth was a humiliating diplomatic disaster that did not place all of Manchuria into the Japanese sphere of influence as widely expected, and the question of Manchuria was still "unfinished business" that would one day be resolved by the Imperial Army. In 1906, Japan established the South Manchurian Railway on the southern half of the former Chinese Eastern Railway built by Russia from Manzhouli to Vladivostok via Harbin with a branch line from Harbin to Port Arthur, now known as Dalian.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Portsmouth, the Kwantung Army had the right to occupy southern Manchuria while the region fell into the Japanese economic sphere of influence. The Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railroad company had a market capitalization of 200 million yen, making it Asia's largest corporation, which went beyond just running the former Russian railroad network in southern Manchuria to owning the ports, mines, hotels, telephone lines, and sundry other businesses, dominating the economy of Manchuria. With the growth of the South Manchuria Railroad company (Mantetsu) came a growth in number of Japanese people living in Manchuria, from a Japanese population of 16,612 in 1906 to one of 233,749 in 1930. The majority of blue-collar employees for Mantetsu were Chinese, and the Japanese employees were mostly white-collar, meaning most of the Japanese living in Manchuria were middle-class people who saw themselves as an elite. In Japan, Manchuria was widely seen as analogous to the Wild West: a dangerous frontier region full of bandits, revolutionaries, and warlords, but also a land of boundless wealth and promise, where it was possible for ordinary people to become very well-off. During the interwar period, Manchuria once again became a political and military battleground between Russia, Japan, and China. Imperial Japan moved into Russia's far eastern territories, taking advantage of internal chaos following the Russian Revolution. However, in the years following the establishment of the Soviet Union, a combination of Soviet military successes and American economic pressure forced the Japanese to withdraw from the area, and Outer Manchuria would be under Soviet control by 1925.
Japanese invasion and establishment of Manchukuo
During the Warlord Era, Marshal Zhang Zuolin established himself in Manchuria with Japanese backing. Later, the Japanese Kwantung Army found him too independent, so he was assassinated in 1928. In assassinating Marshal Zhang, the 'Old Marshal', the Kwantung Army generals expected Manchuria to descend into anarchy, providing the pretext for seizing the region. Marshal Zhang was killed when the bridge his train was riding across was blown up while three Chinese men were murdered and explosive equipment was placed on their corpses to make it appear that they were the killers, but the plot was foiled when Zhang's son Zhang Xueliang, the 'Young Marshal', succeeded him without incident while Tokyo refused to send additional troops to Manchuria. Given that the Kwantung Army had assassinated his father, the "Young Marshal"—who unlike his father was a Chinese nationalist—had strong reasons to dislike Japan's privileged position in Manchuria. Marshal Zhang knew his forces were too weak to expel the Kwantung Army, but his relations with the Japanese were unfriendly right from the start.
After the Mukden incident and Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Japanese militarists moved forward to separate the region from Chinese control and to create a Japanese puppet state. To create an air of legitimacy, the last Emperor of China, Puyi, was invited to come with his followers and act as the head of state for Manchuria. One of his faithful companions was Zheng Xiaoxu, a Qing reformist and loyalist.Reginald Fleming Johnston, p. 438.
The "Northeast Supreme Administrative Council" was established as a Japanese puppet organization in Manchuria following the Mukden Incident. On 16 February 1932, the Imperial Army hosted the "Founding Conference" or "Big Four Conference" with Liaoning governor Zang Shiyi, Heilongjiang governor Zhang Jinghui, commander of the Kirin Provincial Army Xi Qia, and general Ma Zhanshan, in order to establish the Northeast Administrative Committee. On the committee's second meeting, the aforementioned four plus Tang Yulin, Ling Sheng, and Qimote Semupilei were appointed as chairmen. On 18 February, the Council issued a statement announcing that "the Northeast provinces are completely independent".