Manchuria Sept 18, 1931

Hirohito in 1928, was more than a figurehead in Japan according to Herbert Bix

Japan as treaty-breaker 1931

Mitsubishi Nell bomber 1937

Mitsubishi Model A 1917

Mukden incident

• At 10 pm, Sept. 18, an explosion damaged part of the South Manchurian Railway near the barracks of the 7th Chinese Brigade at Mukden.
• At 10:30 pm, Japan's Kwantung Army attacked the Chinese barracks and occupied Mukden.
• Japan troops in Port Arthur since 1905, Korea since 1910 - map

"mud hut in Manchuria" - "1st step in the Tanaka plan"

• according to Frank Capra's Prelude to War
  
• but 1928 plan not authentic - from Chiang's Nationalist propaganda
  

Origin in Washington Treaty system of 1921

• capital ships ratio 5-5-3-1.67-1.67 (US, UK, Japan, Italy, France)
  
• 4 Power Treaty - US, UK, Japan, France - status quo, respect possessions
  
• 5 Power Treaty - no bases
  
• 9 Power Treaty - open door - international cooperation in China
• all powers accepted gold standard, existing colonies

Treaty revision process at first accepted by Japan

• Hirohito 1926-1989 - grandfather estab Meiji Restoration 1868
  
• 1928 Kellogg Briand Pact - outlaw war - signed by 64 incl Japan, Russia
  
• 1930 London Treaty - adjusted ratio to 5-5-3.5 incl. cruisers & subs
  

but Japanese military opposed London Treaty and whole Washington Treaty system

• Yamamoto ordered more aircraft carriers to join Akagi & Kaga, long-range Nell bomber, feared growing American & British fleets
• assassination of PM Hamaguchi 1930
  
• secret Cherry Blossom society of army officers - abortive March 1932 coup

Kwantung Army decided to act on its own (in Manchuria since 1905)

• opp'd imperialism, communism, corruption - led by Gen. Ishiwara & Itagaki
  
• blew up 31-inch gap in railroad 3 mi. south of Mukden at 10:30 pm Sept. 18
  
• map

supported by mass media, newsreels, Zaibatsu elite

• Mitsui, Mitsubishi (built Zero 1939), Sumitomo, Yasuda
• helped by Herbert Smith of Sopwith Aviation and Alexander Baumann of Junkers

China and Germany and U. S. Response

Sources

• Bix, Herbert P. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
• Iriye, Akira. Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific. New York: Longman, 1987.
• Heppenheimer, T.A. Mitsubishi from Centennial of Flight, 2003.
• Japan

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