Mukden was a city in China that experienced a significant event in its history, and this event had various consequences for the residents of China. This event took place in the ninth month of the year 1931 and involved the Japanese and the Chinese people. This event happened for 154 days from its initiation to its completion, and the result was that the Japanese won this invasion. During the war, the Japanese forces in Manchukuo created a puppet state; this happened six months after the invasion started[1]. This article will, therefore, evaluate and analyze the various events and actions that led to the occurrence of this event in Mukden, the various implications that this event had, as well as the various solutions that were brought to the table.
Causes of the Invasion of Mukden
At this time, the Japanese owned the railway company, which was in Mukden, and this happened when some sections of this railway suffered destruction. this destruction led to the invasion by the Japanese forces who therefore invaded Mukden. The damage that was caused by this explosion wasn’t that much, but the Japanese forces decided to use this opportunity to invade Mukden. This railway continued its operations even after this explosion, and different trains still used it to access different places. Scholars turned their consideration to social issues. 5 The Chinese garrison was nearby, and the Japanese forces made artillery attacks on this with respect to the attack by the Chinese. This war continued, and the Japanese forces even got their reinforcements who came from Korea. once these reinforcements arrived, the expansion of the Japanese forces started, and this, therefore, resulted in these forces moving to the northern parts of Manchuria. Afterward, the commanders who were responsible for providing commands to the Japanese forces could not manage to restrain the Kwangtung forces that were active in the field. This resulted in the Japanese forces being able to be present in all the parts of Manchuria and this was followed by the cabinet of Wakatsuki collapsing in the twelfth month on 1931.
A successor took over after the collapse of this cabinet, and this successor was therefore concerned with the opinions of the public and decided to ensure that this invasion was sanctioned. Chiang Kai-shek had the aim of ensuring that the whole of China was under his control, and because of this, he gave orders to Zhang Xueliang, who was in control of the Chinese army and who also gave these forces orders. These orders were that the Chinese forces were to withdraw and not provide any forms of resistance to the Kwantung forces, and this was the main reason why a small amount of resistance was met by the Kwantung forces during the invasion. The position that he was in was very privileged. This attack majorly happened because the lieutenant and the colonel of the Kwantung army had decided to devise a plan to ensure that they attacked the Chinese forces, and this was through the provocation of the forces from China that were nearby at that time[2]. On the contrary, the Chinese forces were taking more time to react to these provocations, and this, therefore, made the Japanese forces create a reason for this attack, and this is when these forces decided to make sure that the railway station was sabotaged. This location was closer to the Chinese garrison and the plan that the Japanese forces had at this time was to make this explosion to happen and ensure that the Chinese force came to this place after which they could blame the Chinese forces for the explosion and start a war.
Additionally, the Japanese forces had aimed to ensure that their sabotage could be viewed by others as a very convincing reason for this attack instead of being viewed as a move that was calculated by the Japanese forces. This was successful because, in the end, people perceived the actions of the Japanese forces as a way of making sure that their railway station was under full protection, and also, the railway station was seen to be economically and industrially important to the Japanese forces. Japan was gripped by fever of modernization. 4The actions of the leaders of the Japanese forces were well calculated since they did not want the railways station to suffer real damage and for this reason they were precautious enough not to place those explosives too close to the tracks of the railways. The detonation of those explosives therefore commenced during the night hours and as per the plan of the Japanese forces, the damage that the railways tracks suffered were little and some trains still managed to go through the damaged section and reach their destinations.
There was also a civil war in China at this time, and this war involved the communist party of China and the Kuomintang. This war had started in the year 1927 and proceeded over the years finally ending in the year 1949. This war between these two groups took place in two major stages, with the first stage starting in the year 1927 and ending in the year 1937, and the second stage commencing in the year 1946 and ending in the year 1950. These two groups had decided to work together and team against the forces of the Japanese and this happened between the year 1937 and the year 1945. In the year 1949, the communists were able to have full control of the Chinese mainland, and thus, they proceeded with the creation of the People’s Republic of China in the same period[3]. This decision by these communists resulted in the retreat of the Republic of China, which had to move to Taiwan. Therefore, there was a split in the ideologies of the KMT and the CPC. The collaboration between these parties happened because they had to ensure that this country did not collapse as a result of the attack by the Japanese forces. These were, therefore, the real causes behind the invasion of Mukden.
The Implications of the Invasion of Mukden
There were elites in China who did not consider the traditions of the people of China; instead, these elites placed more consideration on nationalism since these elites were nationalists. Therefore, modern nationalism was being blocked by the various values of the Chinese people, which included values such as the cultural and linguistic values of the people of China, and thus, this resulted in China having a nationalism that was weak. The selection of nationalism and the avoidance of the cultural identities on the Chinese people were done by these elites as a way of ensuring that they became more empowered. Once the invasion by the Japanese forces had come to a stop, the CPC and the KMT were still fighting against each other and this led to the intensification of the civil war in this country. The incident in Manchuria was interpreted as being crucial. 3This was one of the major implications of the invasion of Mukden by the Japanese forces. Another implication was that the Japanese forces had to surrender since they were losing this war and this was being politicized. Therefore, the Japanese forces that were in Manchuria also had to surrender, and this part of China did not have any forces; thus, they submitted themselves to the Soviet Union. The Japanese forces were instructed against surrendering themselves to the CPC forces and they were only to surrender to the forces of KMT.
Another implication was that the countryside that was being controlled by CPC had citizens who were starving and who also did not have lands. These residents were generally peasants. Therefore CPC used this as a way of recruiting these farmers into their forces. This was possible since CPC promised these farmers that once the war was over, they would be able to own lands and additionally grow their crops on these lands. Therefore, through this, the CPC was able to get more men, making it more manpower[4]. There was nationalism in China, which required that equality be regained between other nations and China. There was also a myth that stated that democracy was achieved by the use of constitutions, which were successive, and this happened between the years 1936v and the year 1946. Once the nationalists managed to be in power, they maintained their positions in power out the 1990s and were removed from power by the DPP in the 2000 elections.
The US government sent a delegate to work together with the League of Nations so as to investigate the event. The Lytton Commission, therefore, made a report concerning this, and this report was interested in finding who to blame for the occurrences in this event, and the result was that the blame was shared between the Chinese and the Japanese. This blame was, therefore, shared correspondingly between the militarism of the Japanese forces and the nationalism of the Chinese forces. There was a competition between communists and nationalists and this war was focused on who was to have control over the important resources control in areas like Manchuria and also the northern parts of China. The nationalists were also corrupt, and they were not effective in wartime therefore, this made them to be perceived as weak. Thus, the communists were to the advantage of this, and they regained more control in this country.
Additionally, the League was responsible for the ratification of the reports made by the Lytton Commission; this happened in the year 1933. This resulted in the delegation from Japan leaving and rejoining the League Council. Therefore, a truce was signed by both the Japanese and the Chinese, but the end result of this was that the Japanese were still controlling Manchuria. This whole concept had a meaning to the Japanese who thought that none of the forms of external interference could stop them from completing the plans of things that they wanted to do in China.
Solutions
There were different solutions that were tried out so as to ensure that everything went back to the original state and some of these solutions worked out while some of them failed. One of these solutions was the intervention by the Soviet Union in these fights so as to bring peace in China. In this solution, the Soviet Union entered Manchuria and fought the Japanese forces in an operation that lasted for a total of three weeks and the Japanese forces were therefore eliminated by the Soviet Union. The destruction of Japan almost happened. 2Once the Soviet Union had eliminated these Japanese forces from Manchuria, it left USSR in control of Manchuria[5]. This led to the surrendering of a total of 700, 000 Japanese forces the US government was also involved in this since it provided transportation services to the KMT forces by airlifting them so that they could dominate and also occupy the major cities that were present in the northern parts of China. At this time, the CPC had the Chinese countryside in its control.
The US government also became involved by sending approximately 50, 000 soldiers with an aim of ensuring that sites that were strategic were guarded by these troops. Additionally, the US government was also responsible for the training and the equipping of the KMT forces as well as the transportation of Koreans and Japanese forces back to these areas so that they could provide help to the forces of KMT in the dominance of the areas that had been liberated. There were also some efforts to bring peace between the nationalists and the communists and this was done in the year 1945 when the two leaders of these opposing sides were to meet and have some discussions regarding the rebuilding and the reuniting of China. Therefore announcements were made that these two parties had managed to make agreements. These efforts were thwarted by some fights which made it difficult for these parties to meet.
Bibliography
Ferrell, Robert H. “The mukden incident: september 18-19, 1931.” The Journal of modern history 27, no. 1 (1955): 66-72.
Gordon, David M. “The China-Japan War, 1931-1945.” The Journal of Military History 70, no. 1 (2006): 137-182.
Suleski, Ronald. “Northeast China under Japanese Control: The Role of the Manchurian Youth Corps, 1934-1945.” Modern China 7, no. 3 (1981): 351-377.
Wilson, Sandra. “The ‘New paradise’: Japanese emigration to Manchuria in the 1930s and 1940s.” The International History Review 17, no. 2 (1995): 249-286.
Wilson, Sandra. “The Manchurian crisis and moderate Japanese intellectuals: the Japan Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations.” Modern Asian Studies 26, no. 3 (1992): 507-544.
[1] Ferrell, Robert H. “The mukden incident: september 18-19, 1931.” The Journal of modern history 27, no. 1 (1955): 66-72.
[2] Wilson, Sandra. “The Manchurian crisis and moderate Japanese intellectuals: the Japan Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations.” Modern Asian Studies 26, no. 3 (1992): 507-544.
[3]Wilson, Sandra. “The ‘New paradise’: Japanese emigration to Manchuria in the 1930s and 1940s.” The International History Review 17, no. 2 (1995): 249-286.
[4] Gordon, David M. “The China-Japan War, 1931-1945.” The Journal of Military History 70, no. 1 (2006): 137-182.
[5] Suleski, Ronald. “Northeast China under Japanese Control: The Role of the Manchurian Youth Corps, 1934-1945.” Modern China 7, no. 3 (1981): 351-377.
