With the United States attempting to remain as neutral as possible and avoid another conflict that paved the way for Japan to become a global power. Japan had started to militarize at an extremely quick rate and their military prowess was impressive. They handily defeated the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 leaving large chunks of eastern Asia to Japan. But their next action would soon demonstrate the weaknesses of the League of Nations.
Manchuria was a province located in northeast China. The Japanese army had already occupied an area known as the Liaodong Peninsula and they were attempting to force the local government to take any action that would allow the Japanese to invade them. Additionally, with Japan's growing population and lack of natural resources, Manchuria could provide all of that. At this point, the Japanese government was in a bit of turmoil because the army wanted to take action whereas the government did not. However, on September 18, 1931, the army got their opportunity when they claimed that one of their railway trains had almost been bombed by Chinese extremists. This was not true at all but that was enough for the Japanese army to quickly capture all of Manchuria. The army had gone "rogue" because they weren't taking orders from the civilian government that had been established in Japan. Essentially, the army had taken control of both Japan and Manchuria because any attempt to form a government was crushed by Japanese terrorists and military officials. In fact, in one of their rampages, there was an attempt to kill Charlie Chaplin. After Manchuria had been captured by the Japanese civilians were brutally massacred and their towns were burned to the ground. The Japanese showed no mercy to these innocent civilians. Their invasion was criticized by the League of Nations and the United States. As usual, the League of Nations simply protested the actions without actually making an effort to make Japan pay for what they did. Additionally, the United States didn't support the war effort but they had no choice but to resume trading with the Japanese to avoid conflict as Japan's navy had become one of the most powerful in the world. As the world tried to recover from World War One, the countries that had been disrespected by the treaty such as Japan, Italy, and Germany became very aggressive and their actions would lead to the largest war the world had ever seen.
I found your post really interesting and what stuck out to me the most was how aggressive Japan was at the time and in years prior. I researched for why it was the case and I found that from Japan's witnessing of China's defeat against European powers and being forced to open their ports by America when in a much weaker state, Japan wanted to remain independent. Japan then started industrializing. Japan didn't, however, as you said, have very large supplies of natural resources. This lead, partially for more resources, as well as overall to increase their power, to their conquests abroad, including Korea as well as Manchuria, as you stated. Furthermore, Japan would invade multiple Pacific islands and gain many, such as in WW1, and would continue to desire more to strengthen themselves to continue to be independent from foreign conquest or control.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/07/what-prompted-japan-s-aggression-before-and-during-world-war-ii.html
https://www.history.com/news/japan-colonization-korea
Your post was really informative and interesting! I would have never thought that the Japanese once attempted to kill Charlie Chaplin. One thing that surprised me was how aggressive Japan was for land, but it seems as if that aggression was necessary to take control of Manchuria. I learned that Manchuria has been a hotbed of conflict since the late 19th century. Initially, the Russian empire had control over Manchuria in 1860 from the Beijing Treaty, and disputes over the area led to the Russo-Japanese War. Then, in 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, setting up the puppet state of Manchukuo, which helped the Empire of Japan expand and gain power. The Japanese picked Changchun to be the capital of Manchukuo, as it had rail connections to Korean ports and shipping lanes to Japan. Through the overtake of Manchuria, Japan established itself as a growing world power. Next, during the Chinese Civil War, Manchuria was a base of operations for the People’s Liberation Army led by Mao Zedong. In the Korean War, Manchuria was used as a military base for the Chinese to assist North Korea against the United Nations command forces. The most recent large scale dispute over Manchuria was the Sino–Soviet border conflict during the Cold War.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Manchuria
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/02/welcome-to-the-most-japanese-city-in-china-manchuria-changchun/