Japanese invasion of Manchuria

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Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Part of the interwar period and the Chinese Civil War
Japanese troops marching into Qiqihar on September 18, 1931
Date September 18, 1931 – February 27, 1932 (5 months, 1 week and 2 days) Location Manchuria, Republic of China Result Japanese victory Tanggu Truce Territorial changes Manchuria seized by the Kwantung Army Establishment of Manchukuo as a Japanese puppet state
Belligerents
Japan  Manchukuo (from 1932) Chinese collaborators	China
Commanders and leaders
Shigeru Honjō Jirō Tamon Hideki Tojo[1] Senjuro Hayashi Puyi Zhang Haipeng	Zhang Xueliang Ma Zhanshan Feng Zhanhai Ding Chao
Strength
30,000–60,450 men[citation needed]	160,000 men

The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded the Manchuria region of the Republic of China on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden incident,^[2] a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext to invade. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. The occupation lasted until mid-August 1945, towards the end of the Second World War, in the face of an onslaught by the Soviet Union and Mongolia during the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.

The South Manchuria Railway Zone and the Korean Peninsula had been under the control of the Japanese Empire since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Japan's ongoing industrialization and militarization ensured their growing dependence on oil and metal imports from the US.^[3] The US sanctions which prevented trade with the United States (which had occupied the Philippines around the same time) resulted in Japan furthering its expansion in the territory of China and Southeast Asia.^[4] The invasion of Manchuria, or the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, are sometimes cited as alternative starting dates for World War II, in contrast with the more commonly accepted date of September 1, 1939.^[5]

With the invasion having attracted great international attention, the League of Nations produced the Lytton Commission (headed by British politician Victor Bulwer-Lytton) to evaluate the situation, with the organization delivering its findings in October 1932. Its findings and recommendations that the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo not be recognized and the return of Manchuria to Chinese sovereignty prompted the Japanese government to withdraw from the League entirely.