During the invasion of the Manchuria area of China the Japanese soldiers claimed that the Chinese soldiers sabotaged the South Manchurian rail track. The incident happened at 10:30pm. The Japanese later claimed that “…. a detachment of Chinese troops destroyed the tracks of the South Manchurian railway….”. However the Chinese account went as follows, “….Japanese railway guards picked a quarrel by blowing up a section of the railway near Mukden, and then accused the Chinese military of having done this….”. The Japanese later issued a photograph said to show the damage to the railway line.
This accusation therefore gave the Japanese an excuse to take over and hide the fact that they were invading China just because they were an aggressive country and wanted to expand their empire. Japan felt that it was unfair than countries such as Britain and France had a large empire and they had achieved this by sending an army of soldiers in to take over the weak country and that now Japan was not allowed to do this to other countries, or they would theoretically be stopped by the League of Nations. They felt that they should have been allowed to create an empire as Britain and France had done a century or so earlier.
Japan claimed that they had attacked the Chinese soldiers in defence for their railway. Later there was a meeting in Japan between the Japanese government and the emperor to decide whether they should go ahead with the lie that China had blown up the railway, since actually what happened, and was proved at a later date, was that Japan had sabotaged their own railway to find an excuse to become aggressive towards the Chinese soldiers and invade Manchuria and take it over. They felt that they should go ahead with the lie since China was a weak and corrupt country that was at war with itself, and Japan was a major power and therefore the League of Nations were more likely to favour Japan and therefore they were more likely to win the dispute. They knew that the League of Nations would be less forceful when dealing with a major power like Japan therefore they were more likely to get the benefit of the doubt. It would also be embarrassing to show that the emperor could not control their army. This lack of control could also lead to Japan having to disarm due to their army being aggressive. Also Japan would have had to admit to lying and forging an incident that didn’t occur. Therefore they decided to go along with the lie. The Japanese population did not have much say in Japan’s decisions as they have nowadays in Britain. Most of the population went along with the emperors decisions since they believed in divinity and that he was appointed by God. Therefore the majority of the Japanese always believed that he was right. The popular prey “Banzai” was used, meaning “May the Emperor live 10,000 years. Although there were some who disagreed with his polices and thought that he was a quiet, shy man who left his generals and admirals in charge of the Empire. This is a major factor into why the Manchurian affair occurred. Since the Emperor could not control his generals and army who were very nationalistic and had very ambitious and aggressive plans that were not in the best interest for Japan.
China applied to the League of Nations about the invasion of Japanese soldiers on their territory. Japan claimed it was not an aggressor but simply settling a local difficulty. They claimed that China was in such a state of lawlessness that they had to invade to keep peace in the area and that they only attacked the Chinese soldiers in defence since the Chinese had sabotaged their railway.
The League sent officials to Manchuria to assess the situation and by September 1932 a report was published that condemned Japan and it declared that Japan had acted unlawfully. Lord Lytton was the assessor but he wasn’t a very forceful man so the Japanese army didn’t take much notice of him. The following words were said about the photograph that had been issued by Japan. “The blasting powder was placed carefully so that it would throw a lot of dirt but would cause no real damage.” Therefore implying that the whole incident had been forged since Japan wanted to look like a lots of damage had been done but didn’t want the hassle of having to rebuild the railway.
The League ordered that China should be returned to the Chinese. However instead of withdrawing as the league had demanded Japan announced their intention to invade more of China. They argued that they were defending their interests and an official Japanese report explained, “In order to prevent an imminent disaster, the Japanese army had to act swiftly….the Japanese Government has not territorial designs on Manchuria.” On 27th March 1933 they left the League and a week later invaded Jehol. Within four days they controlled an area of 200 miles around Mukden. Even the Japanese government ordered the army to withdraw but since the Emperor didn’t have much control over the army, they continued to advance. The Japanese overran Manchuria and by 1932 they had established a puppet government there. The puppet government meant that the Japanese appointed a Chinese leader to control the area (Henry Pu-Yi, who was a former Chinese emperor) but he was being controlled by the Japanese government. Therefore he appeared to be making all the decisions and running the area but this was not so. One way in which the Japanese controlled the Chinese and made them pay for the cost of keeping the army and officials in Manchuria was through the drug trade.
Leaving the league showed that they were not going to co-operate peacefully and obey the laws and regulations the league had set up. Although the League did nothing to stop this aggression apart from try to set up sanctions but this didn’t have much affect since America was Japan’s main trading partner and America was not part of the League. Britain didn’t do much to help the League as they wanted to build up a trading partnership with Japan to aid their failing economy. Therefore they didn’t want to spoil their friendship with Japan. This shows just how lenient the League and the major powers were on a major power like Japan. Also Britain and France would not risk using their armies to force Japan out of Manchuria. The only nations with the ability to do this were America and the USSR and they were not members of the League. Therefore a lot of this mess comes down to America not joining the League. Therefore as the cartoon suggested the League was “damaged from the beginning”.
The Manchurian crisis indicated that if a major power like Japan decided to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, the League was powerless to stop it. The failure of the League also encouraged the second world war since by trying to stop a country and not succeeding just angers the country into wanting to seek revenge and doesn’t stop it from being able to start a war, since it has not been disarmed or weakened. Hitler and Mussolini observed the Manchurian crisis with interest. They wanted to see how the major European powers would act towards a major power that disobeyed the League. It seemed obvious to them that they could follow Japan’s example in Europe. Therefore this was another factor which brought on the second world war since Germany could become more aggressive without the League taking action to stop it. By this point it was clear that the League had failed.
