Manchukuo and the Second Sino-Japanese War

Aggression in Manchuria was supported by moves in North China, where boundary areas were consolidated in order to enlarge the economic basis of the emerging “Co-prosperity Sphere.” In the winter and spring of 1932, the Japanese navy precipitated an incident at Shanghai in order to put an end to a boycott of Japanese goods there. Japan was not yet prepared to challenge other powers for control of central China, however. The League of Nations appointed a committee headed by Lord Lytton which recommended in October 1932 that Japanese troops be withdrawn, Chinese sovereignty in Manchuria recognized, and a large measure of autonomy granted to Manchuria. The league accepted these recommendations and called upon member states to withhold recognition from the new puppet state. When this measure was passed, the Japanese delegation, led by Matsuoka Yosuke, walked out of the league’s chamber.

In January 1933 the Japanese army moved south from Manchuria into Jehol (Chengde). Shortly afterward, in March 1933, Japan formally withdrew from the League of Nations. In May 1933, as the Japanese consolidated their gains in China, they concluded a truce with the Nationalist government in Beijing, whereby a demilitarized zone was set up between Beijing and the Great Wall. This brought the fighting to a temporary close. In 1934 a statement by the Tokyo foreign office made it clear that Japan would brook no interference in its China policy and that Chinese attempts to procure military assistance elsewhere would bring Japanese opposition. Japan poured workers and capital into Manchukuo, exploiting its resources to establish the heavy industry complex that was to undergird the new order in East Asia. The military planners avoided contacts with the old zaibatsu firms whose ties with the political party governments they had deplored. Instead, they worked through new firms of their own selection.

In the short term, domestic crises would limit further Japanese military expansion in China. The February 1936 military revolt in Tokyo marked the high point of the extremists and the consolidation of power by the Control faction within the army. With the death of Korekiyo, whose monetary policies had spared Japan the worst effects of the Depression, opposition to additional inflationary spending by the government was silenced. Further efforts by palace advisers to defer full power for the military brought short periods of rule under Hirota Kōki and Hayashi Senjūrō. When these efforts failed, the leadership went to the popular but largely ineffective Konoe Fumimaro, scion of an ancient court family, in June 1937.

Meanwhile, in December 1936 Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped by Chinese border armies at Sian (Xi’an) and was released when he agreed to the consolidation of Nationalist and communist efforts in an anti-Japanese United Front. To this development was added evidence that the Japanese people were not yet prepared to renounce the parliamentary system. General elections in spring 1937 showed a surprisingly strong performance by the new Social Mass Party, which received 36 seats out of 466 and a heavy majority for Seiyūkai and Minseitō, which had combined forces against the government and its policies. The time seemed ready for civilian leaders to assert their primacy, but the field armies anticipated them.

On July 7, 1937, Japanese troops opened fire on Chinese units at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. Thus began the Second Sino-Japanese War. Japanese armies took Nanking (Nanjing), Hankow (Hankou), and Canton (Guangzhou) despite a spirited Chinese defense; to the north, Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Shansi (Shanxi) and Shensi (Shaanxi) were invaded but not fully subjugated. After the brutal massacre of civilians and surrendered soldiers in Nanking, the Konoe government began peace feelers. The Nationalist government, which had retired to Chungking (Chongqing) in Szechwan (Sichuan), refused to negotiate. The Japanese responded in March 1940 by installing its own regime at Nanking under the former Nationalist leader Wang Ching-wei.