Manchukuo ( ,
Manshūkoku, literally
"State of
Manchuria") was a
puppet state in
Manchuria and eastern
Inner Mongolia.
The region was the
historical homeland of the Manchus, who
founded the Qing
Dynasty
of China. In 1931, the region was seized by
Japan following the
Mukden Incident
and in 1932, a puppet government was created, with
Puyi, the last Qing emperor, installed as the nominal
regent and emperor. Manchukuo's government was abolished in 1945
after the defeat of Imperial Japan at the end of
World War II.
Manchus
formed a minority in Manchukuo, whose largest ethnic group were
Han Chinese. There were also
Koreans,
Japanese,
Mongols,
White Russians and less numerous
minorities. The Mongol regions of western Manchukuo were ruled
under a slightly different system in acknowledgement of the
Mongolian traditions there.
The southern part of the Liaodong
Peninsula
was ruled by Japan as the Kwantung Leased
Territory.
History
Background
After
Manchu tribes conquered China they replaced the Ming Dynasty
with the Qing.
However, the Manchu emperors did not fully integrate their homeland
into China. This legal, and to a degree ethnic, division persisted
until the Qing dynasty began to fall apart in the 1800s.
As the
power of the court in Beijing weakened, many
outlying areas either broke free (like Kashgar
) or fell
under the control of Imperialist powers. In the 1800s, Imperial Russia
was most interested in the northern lands of the
Qing Empire. In 1858, Russia gained nominal control over a
huge tract of land called
Outer
Manchuria thanks to the
Supplementary Treaty of Beijing that
ended the
Second Opium War. But
Russia was not satisfied, and as the Qing Dynasty continued to
weaken, they made further efforts to take control over the rest of
Manchuria.
Inner Manchuria came under strong Russian
influence in
the 1890s with the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway through
Harbin
to Vladivostok
.
Origins
As a
direct result of the Russo-Japanese
War (1904/05) Japanese
influence
replaced Russia's in Inner Manchuria. In 1906, Japan laid the
South Manchurian Railway to
Port
Arthur
(Japanese: Ryojun). Between
World War I and
World
War II Manchuria became a political and military battleground
between Russia, Japan, and China.
Japan moved into
Outer Manchuria as a result of the
chaos following the Russian
Revolution of 1917. A combination of Soviet military successes
and American
economic pressure forced the Japanese to withdraw
from the area, however, and Outer Manchuria returned to Soviet
control by 1925.
During the
warlord period in China, the
warlord
Zhang Zuolin established
himself in
Inner Manchuria with
Japanese backing. Later the Japanese
Kantogun found him too independent and assassinated
him in 1928.
The throne of the emperor in Manchuko,
circa 1937.
After the
Japanese
invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Japanese militarists moved
forward to separate the region from Chinese control and to create a
Japanese-aligned puppet state. To create an air of legitimacy, the
last Emperor of China,
Pu-Yi, was invited to
come with his followers and act as the head of state for Manchuria.
One of his faithful companions was
Cheng
Hsiao-hsu, a Qing reformist and loyalist.
On
18 February 1932
the
State of Manchuria (Manchukuo,
Pinyin:
Mǎnzhōuguó) was proclaimed and
recognized by Japan on 16 September 1932.
The city of Changchun
, renamed Xinjing (新京, literally "New Capital"),
became the capital of the new
entity. Chinese in Manchuria organized
volunteer armies to oppose
the Japanese and the new state required a
war lasting several years to
pacify the country.
The Japanese initially installed Puyi as Head of State in 1932, and
two years later he was declared Emperor of Manchukuo with the
era name of
Kangde ("Tranquility and
Virtue"). Manchukuo thus became the Great Manchurian Empire,
sometimes termed
Manchutikuo (Pinyin:
Mǎnzhōu
Dìguó).
Zheng Xiaoxu served as
Manchukuo's first prime minister until 1935, when
Zhang Jinghui succeeded him. Puyi was nothing
more than a figurehead and real authority rested in the hands of
the Japanese military officials.
An imperial palace
was specially built for the emperor. All of
the Manchu ministers served as front-men for their Japanese
vice-ministers, who made all decisions.
In this manner Japan formally detached Manchukuo from China in the
course of the 1930s. With Japanese investment and rich natural
resources, the area became an industrial powerhouse.
In 1935, Manchukuo bought Chinese Eastern Railway from the Soviet
Union.
Diplomatic recognition
China did not recognise Manchukuo but the two countries established
official ties for trade, communications and transportation.
In 1933,
the League of Nations adopted the
Lytton Report, declaring that Manchuria remained rightfully part of China
, leading
Japan to resign its membership. The Manchukuo case prompted
the United States to articulate the so-called
Stimson Doctrine, under which international
recognition was withheld from changes in the international system
created by force of arms.
In spite
of the League of Nation's approach, the new state was
diplomatically recognised by El Salvador
(3 March 1934) and the Dominican
Republic
(1934), the Soviet Union (de facto 23 March 1935; de jure 13 April 1941),
Italy (29
November 1937), Spain
(2 December 1937), Germany (12 May 1938) and Hungary (9 January 1939).It is
commonly believed The Holy See established diplomatic relations
with Manchukuo in 1934. In fact, the Holy See never did it. Bishop
Auguste Ernest Pierre Gaspais was appointed as «representative ad
tempus of the Holy See and of the Catholic missions of Manchukuo to
the government of Manchukuo» by the Congregation of Propaganda Fide
(a purely religious Vatican body responsible for missions) and not
by the Secretary of State responsible for diplomatic relations with
States.
After the
outbreak of World War II, the state was
recognised by Slovakia
(1 June 1940), France, Romania (1 December 1940), Bulgaria (10 May 1941), Finland
(18 July 1941), Denmark
(August 1941), Croatia
(2 August 1941) - all controlled or influenced by
Japan's ally Germany - as well as by the China's Wang Jinwei government (30
November 1940), Thailand
(5 August 1941) and the Philippines (1943) - all under
Japanese control.
World War II and aftermath
Prior to
World War II, the Japanese
colonized Manchukuo and used it as a base from which to invade
China.
In
the summer of 1939 a border dispute between Manchukuo and the
Mongolian People's
Republic resulted in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol
. During this battle, a combined
Soviet-Mongolian force defeated the Japanese
Kwantung Army (
Kantogun) supported by limited Manchukuoan
forces.
On
8 August 1945, the
Soviet
Union declared war on Japan in accordance with the
agreement at the Yalta
Conference
, and invaded Manchukuo from outer Manchuria and
Outer Mongolia. This was called
Manchurian Strategic
Offensive Operation. During the Soviet offensive the Army of
Manchukuo, theoretically a two hundred-thousand-man force, well
armed and trained along Japanese lines, performed poorly and whole
units surrendered to the Soviets without firing a single shot;
there were even cases of armed riots and mutinies against the
Japanese forces. Emperor Kangde had hoped to escape to Japan to
surrender to the Americans, but the Soviets captured him and
eventually extradited him to the communist government in China,
where the authorities had him imprisoned as a
war criminal along with all other captured
Manchukuo officials.
From 1945 to 1948, Manchuria (Inner Manchuria) served as a base
area for the
People's
Liberation Army in the
Chinese
Civil War against the
Kuomintang
(KMT). With Soviet encouragement, the
Chinese Communists used Manchuria
as a staging ground until the end of the
Chinese Civil War in 1949. Many Manchukuo
army and Japanese Kantogun personnel served with the communist
troops during the Chinese Civil War against the Nationalist forces.
About the 1.5 million Japanese that had been left in Manchukuo at
the end of WWII were sent back to their homeland in 1946-1948 by
the U.S. Navy ships in the operation now known as the
Japanese repatriation from
Huludao.
Politics
Historians generally consider Manchukuo a
puppet state of Imperial
Japan
because of the Japanese military's strong presence
and strict control of the government administration. Chinese
historians generally refer to the state as 'Wei Manzhouguo' ('false
Manchukuo'). Some historians see Manchukuo as an effort at building
an idealized Japanese state in mainland Asia that failed due to the
pressures of war.
Manchukuo was proclaimed a
monarchy on 1
March 1934, with
Puyi assuming the throne under
the reign name of Emperor Kang-de. Puyi was assisted in his
executive duties by a
Privy Council (
), and a
General Affairs
State Council ( ). This State Council was the center of
political power, and consisted of several cabinet ministers, each
assisted by a Japanese vice-minister.
The
commanding officer of the
Kwantung Army in Manchukuo was
simultaneously Japanese ambassador to Manchukuo. He functioned in a
manner similar to that of a British
resident officer in British overseas
protectorates, with the power to veto
decisions by the emperor.
The
Legislative Council ( ) was
largely a ceremonial body, existing to rubber-stamp decisions
issued by the State Council. The only authorized
political party was the government-sponsored
Concordia Association,
although various émigré groups were permitted their own political
associations.
Administrative division of Manchukuo
- See List of
administrative divisions of Manchukuo for a complete list of
prefecture-level
divisions.
During
its short-lived existence, Manchukuo was divided into between five
(in 1932) and 19 (in 1941) provinces, one special ward of Peiman ( )
and two Special
cities which were Hsinking
( ) and Harbin
( ).
Each province was divided into between four (Hsingan-tung) and 24
(Fengtien)
prefectures. Peiman
lasted less than 3 years (1 July 1933 – 1 January 1936) and Harbin
was later incorporated into
Binkiang
province. Lungkiang also existed as a province in the 1932 before
being divided into
Heiho,
Lungkiang and
Sankiang in
1934. Antung and Chinchow provinces separated themselves from
Fengtien while Binkiang and Chientao from Kirin separated
themselves in the same year.
Demographics
1908, the number of residents was 15,834,000, which rose to
30,000,000 in 1931 and 43,000,000 for the Manchukuo state. The
population balance remained 123 men to 100 women and the total
number in 1941 was 50,000,000.
In early 1934, the total population of Manchukuo was estimated as
30,880,000, with 6.1 persons the average family, and 122 men for
each 100 women. These numbers included 29,510,000
Han Chinese, 590,760
Japanese, 680,000
Koreans, and 98,431 of other nationality
White Russians,
Mongols,
etc. Around 80% of the population was rural. Other statistics
indicate that in Manchukuo the population rose by 18,000,000.
From
Japanese sources come these numbers: in 1940 the total population
in Manchukuo of Lungkiang, Jehol, Kirin, Liaoning
(Fengtien) and Hsingan
provinces at 43,233,954; or an Interior Ministry figure of
31,008,600. Another figure of the period evaluated the total
population as 36,933,000 residents.
Around
the same time the Soviet Union was promoting the Siberian Jewish
Autonomous Oblast
across the Manchukuo-Soviet border, some Japanese
officials explored a plan (known as the Fugu Plan) to attract
Jewish refugees to Manchukuo as part of their
colonisation efforts which was never adopted as official
policy.
Population of main cities
- Yingkow
or Yingkou or Newchwang
(119,000 or
180,871 in 1940)
- Mukden or
Shenyang
(339,000 or 1,135,801 in 1940)
- Hsinking
or Changchun (126,000 or
544,202 in 1940)
- Harbin (405,000 or
661,948 in 1940)
- Dairen or Dalian (400,000 or 555,562 in
1939)
- Antung or
Dandong
(92,000 or 315,242 in 1940)
- Kirin or
Jilin
(119,000 or 173,624 in 1940)
- Tsitsihar
or Qiqihar
(75,000 in 1940)
Japanese population
In 1931–2, there were 100,000
Japanese farmers; other sources mention
590,760 inhabitants of Japanese nationality. Other figures for
Manchukuo speak of a Japanese population 240,000 strong, later
growing to 837,000. In Hsinking, they made up 25% of the
population. The Japanese government had official plans projecting
the emigration of 5 million Japanese to Manchukuo between 1936 and
1956. Between 1938 and 1942 a contingent of young farmers of
200,000 arrived in Manchukuo; joining this group after 1936 were
20,000 complete families. When Japan lost sea and air control of
the Yellow Sea, this migration stopped.
When the
Red Army invaded Manchukuo, they
captured 850,000 Japanese settlers. With the exception of some
civil servants and soldiers, these were repatriated to Japan in
1946–7. Many
Japanese orphans
in China were left behind in the confusion by then Japanese
government and were adopted by Chinese families. Some of them were
stigmatized as Japanese during the Cultural Revolution , many
however, integrated well into Chinese society. In the 1980s Japan
began to organise a repatriation programme for them but not all
chose to go back to Japan.
Economy
Manchukuo experienced rapid economic growth and progress in its
social systems . Its industrial system was among the most advanced
making it one of the industrial powerhouses in the region .
Manchukuo's steel production surpassed Japan's in the late 1930s.
Many Manchurian cities were modernised during Manchukuo era.
However, most of these benefited Japanese immigrants rather than
the local population and raw material flowed into Japan later to
support the war effort. Traditional lands were taken and
redistributed to Japanese farmers with local farmers relocated and
forced into collective farming units over smaller areas of
land.
See also:
Transport
Hsinking Railway Station
Manchukuo built an efficient and massive railway system that still
functions well today.
Military
Manchukuo Imperial Army
The Manchukuo Imperial Army was the armed force of Manchukuo.
Cavalry of the Manchukuo Imperial
Army.
Manchukuo Imperial Guards
The Manchukuo Imperial Guards was the elite unit of the Manchukuo
armed forces created in 1933. It was charged with the protection of
the Kangde Emperor Puyi, and senior members of the Manchukuo civil
government. Its headquarters was in the capital of Hsinking, near
the Imperial Palace in the center of the city.
Manchukuo Imperial Navy
The Manchukuo Imperial Navy (
Manshu Teikoku Kaigun) was
the navy of the Japanese state of Manchukuo. As Manchukuo was a
largely land-locked state, the leadership of the Japanese Kwantung
Army regarded the development of a navy to have a very low military
priority, although it was politically desirable to create at least
a nominal force as a symbol of the legitimacy of the new
regime.
Manchukuo Imperial Air Force
The Manchukuo Imperial Air Force (
Dai Manshū Teikoku
Kūgun) was established in February 1937, initially with 30 men
selected from the Manchukuo Imperial Army and trained at the
Japanese Kwantung Army aircraft arsenal in Harbin. The official air
force's predecessor was the Manchukuo Air Transport Company (later
re-named the Manchukuo National Airways) a paramilitary airline
formed in 1931, which undertook transport and reconnaissance
missions for the Japanese military.
War crimes in Manchukuo
According to a joint study of historians Zhifen Ju, Mitsuyochi
Himeta, Toru Kubo and
Mark Peattie,
more than 10 million Chinese civilians were mobilized by the
Shōwa period army for slave work
in Manchukuo under the supervision of the
Kōa-in.
The Chinese slave laborers often suffered illness due to
high-intensity manual labor. Some badly ill workers were directly
pushed into
mass graves in order to avoid
the medical expenditure and the world's most serious
mine disaster, at
Benxihu Colliery, happened in
Manchukuo.
Bacteriological weapons were
experimented on humans by the infamous
unit
731 located near Harbin in Beinyinhe from 1932 to 1936 and to
Pingfan until 1945. Victims, mostly Chinese, Russians and Koreans,
were subjected to
vivisection, sometimes
without anesthesia.
Drug trafficking
Poppy harvest in Manchukuo
In 2007, an article by Reiji Yoshida in the
Japan Times argued that the Japanese
investments were partly financed by
selling drugs. According to the article, a
document found by Yoshida shows that the
Kōa-in was directly implicated
in providing funds to drug dealers in China for the benefit of the
puppet governments of Manchukuo, Nanjing and Mongolia. This
document corroborates evidence analyzed earlier by the
Tokyo tribunal which stated that
Education
Manchukuo developed an efficient public
education system. The government established many
schools and technical colleges, 12,000 primary schools in
Manchukuo, 200 middle schools, 140 normal schools (for preparing
teachers), and 50 technical and professional schools. In total the
system had 600,000 children and young pupils and 25,000 teachers.
There were 1,600 private schools (with Japanese permits), 150
missionary schools and in Harbin 25 Russian schools. Local Chinese
children and Japanese children usually attended different schools,
and the ones who did attend the same school were segregated
racially, with the Japanese students assigned to better-equipped
classes.
Confucius's teachings also played an important role in Manchukuo's
public school education. In rural areas, students were trained to
practice modern agricultural techniques to improve production.
Education focused on practical work training for boys and domestic
work for girls, all based on adherence to the "Kingly Way" and
stressing loyalty to the Emperor. The regime used numerous
festivals, sport events, and ceremonies to foster loyalty of
citizens. Eventually,
Japanese
became the official language in addition to the Chinese language
taught in Manchukuo schools.
Stamps and postal history
Manchukuo issued its first
postage
stamps on
28 July 1932.
A number of denominations existed, with two
designs: the pagoda at Liaoyang
and a portrait of Puyi. Originally the
inscription read (in Chinese) "Manchu State Postal Administration";
in 1934, a new issue read "Manchu Empire Postal Administration". An
orchid crest design appeared in 1935,
and a design featuring the
Sacred
White Mountains in 1936.
1936 also saw a new regular series featuring various scenes and
surmounted by the orchid crest. Between 1937 and 1945, the
government issued a variety of commemoratives: for anniversaries of
its own existence, to note the passing of new laws, and to honor
Japan in various ways, for instance, on the 2600th anniversary of
the Japanese Empire in 1940. The last issue of Manchukuo came on
2 May 1945, commemorating
the 10th anniversary of an edict.
After the dissolution of the government, successor postal
authorities locally handstamped many of the remaining stamp stocks
with "Republic of China" in Chinese and so forth.
In addition, the
Port
Arthur
and Dairen Postal
Administration overprinted many Manchukuo
stamps between 1946 and 1949.
Manchukuo 1932–1945
| Personal Names |
Period of Reigns |
era names (年號) and their
corresponding range of years |
| All given names in
'bold. |
| Aixinjueluo Puyi 愛新覺羅溥儀
Àixīnjuéluó Pǔyì |
March 1932–August 1945 |
Datong (大同 Dàtóng) 1932–1934
Kangde (康德 Kāngdé) 1934–1945 |
In popular culture
The 1987
film of Bernardo Bertolucci,
The Last Emperor, made a
controversial portrait of Manchukuo through the memories of Emperor
Puyi, during his days as political prisoner in
Communist
China
.
Anthem
Main Article:
National Anthem of
Manchukuo
1933 Anthem
| Traditional Chinese |
Pinyin |
English translation |
| 天地內 有了新滿洲 |
Tiān dì nèi, yǒu liǎo xīn mǎnzhōu |
(Now) there is the new Manchuria on Earth, |
| 新滿洲 便是新天地 |
Xīn mǎnzhōu, biàn shì xīn tiān dì |
and the new Manchuria is our new land. |
| 頂天立地 無苦無憂 造成我國家 |
Dǐng tiān lì dì, wú kǔ wú yōu, zào chéng wǒ guójiā |
Let us make our country to be upright and free of sadness, |
| 只有親愛竝無怨仇 |
Zhǐ yǒu qīn'ài bìng wú yuànchóu |
with only love and no hate. |
| 人民三千萬 人民三千萬 |
Rénmín sān qiān wàn, rénmín sān qiān wàn |
Thirty million people, thirty million people, |
| 縱加十倍也得自由 |
Zòng jiā shí bèi yě dé zìyóu |
at ten times more we should still be free. |
| 重仁義 尚禮讓 使我身修 |
Zhòng rényì, shàng lǐràng, shǐ wǒ shēn xiū, |
With virtue and li,
rectified am I; |
| 家已齊 國已治 此外何求? |
Jiā yǐ qí, guó yǐ zhì, cǐwài hé qiú? |
with family in order and with the state well-ruled, there are
nothing I want. |
| 近之則與世界同化 |
Jìn zhī, zé yǔ shìjiè tónghuà |
For now, may we assimilate with the world; |
| 遠之則與天地同流 |
Yuǎn zhī, zé yǔ tiāndì tóng liú |
for the future, may we follow the ways of the Heaven and
Earth. |
1942 Anthem
| Traditional Chinese |
Pinyin |
English translation |
| 神光開宇宙 表裏山河壯皇猷 |
Shén guāng kāi yǔzhòu, biǎolǐ shānhé zhuàng huáng yóu |
With the Universe created in God's Light, the vast land
strengthens the Emperor's rule; |
| 帝德之隆 巍巍蕩蕩莫與儔 |
Dì'dé zhī lóng wēiwēi dàngdàng mò yǔ chóu |
So full is His virtue, so wide that it is beyond compare |
| 永受天祐兮 萬壽無疆薄海謳 |
Yǒng shòu tiān yòu xī, wànshòuwújiāng bó hǎi xú |
May He always receive divine guidance, with his years
surpassing the sea; |
| 仰贊天業兮 輝煌日月侔 |
Yǎng zàn tiān yè xī, huīhuáng rì yuè móu |
[Let us] worship the divine work, its glory equals the sun and
moon. |
| Japanese |
Hepburn romanization |
English translation |
| 大御光 天地に充ち |
Ohomi-hikari ametsuchi ni michi |
Filling the world with Divine light, |
| 帝徳は 隆く 崇し |
Teitoku wa takaku tafutoshi |
The Emperor's virtue is noble and worshipped. |
| 豊栄の 万寿ことほぎ |
Toyosaka no banju kotohogi |
Let us salute him with long life and prosperity |
| 天つ御業 仰ぎまつらむ |
Ametsumiwaza afugimatsuramu |
and we revere the Emperor's deeds |
See also
References
- Encyclopædia Britannica article on
Manchukuo
- Reginald Fleming Johnston, p. 438.
- Between World Wars
- [1]
- [2]
- Borisov, O. (1977). The Soviet Union and the Manchurian
Revolutionary Base (1945-1949). Moscow, Progress
Publishers.
- Columbia Encyclopedia article on Manchukuo
- Doak, Kevin Michael. Sovereignty and Authenticity:
Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern The Journal of Japanese
Studies - Volume 30, Number 2, Summer 2004, pp. 502-507. ISSN:
0095-6848.
- Zhifen Ju, Japan's atrocities of conscripting and abusing
north China draftees after the outbreak of the Pacific war,
2002.
-
http://books.google.com/books?id=yEA5EJyy4CYC&pg=PT25&ots=wnzSo8hEse&dq=%22mass+grave%22+Liaoning&sig=POFcnbEp_C6Ydn-SiEbXHb4YCP4
- Japan profited as opium dealer wartime China,
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070830f1.html
- Japan Focus.
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