Events In Manchuria

Japan and Russia long struggled for control of this rich, strategically important region. Japan tried to seize the Liao-tung peninsula in 1895, but was forestalled by the Triple Intervention. From 1898 to 1904 Russia was dominant. As a result of a Russo-Chinese alliance against Japan, the Russians built Harbin, the naval base at Port Arthur, the commercial center of Dalny (Dalian) and the Chinese Eastern Railroad. Japan, after victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), took control of Port Arthur, Dalny (renamed Dairen) and the Southern half of Manchuria, limiting Russian influence to the North. Chiefly through the South Manchurian Railroad, Japan developed the region's economy. From 1918 to 1931 the warlords Chang Tso-lin and Chang Hsüeh-liang controlled Chinese military power in Manchuria. Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931–32, when Chinese military resistance, sapped by civil war, was weak. The seizure of Manchuria was, in effect, an unofficial declaration of war on China. Manchuria was a base for Japanese aggression in North China and a buffer region for Japanese-controlled Korea. In 1932, Japan annexed Manchuria and formed it as Manchukuo, an independent nation that was in truth a puppet state. The Japanese developed the cities of Dairen (Dalian), Anshan, Fushun, Mukden (Shenyang), and Harbin areas into a huge industrial complex of metallurgical, coal, petroleum, and chemical industries.

A Brief Timeline:

1900 Nov 09 Russia completed its occupation of Manchuria. 1904 Feb 04 Russia offered Korea to Japan and defended its right to occupy Manchuria. 1904 Feb 06 Japan's foreign minister severed all ties with Russia, citing delaying tactics in negotiations over Manchuria. 1905 Jan 27 Russian General Kuropatkin took the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffered heavy casualties. 1905 Feb 27 Japanese pushed Russians back in Manchuria, and cross the Sha River. 1905 Mar 05 Russians began to retreat from Mukden in Manchuria. 1907 Mar 22 Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces. 1910 Jan 21 Japan rejected the American proposal to neutralize ownership of the Manchurian Railway. 1928 Jun 03 Manchurian warlord Chian Tso-Lin died as a result of a bomb blast set off by the Japanese, who were planning to invade and claim Manchuria. 1928 The Japanese army unilaterally instigated armed clashes in China's Manchuria region to justify full-scale intervention. 1929 Sep 21 Fighting between China and the Soviet Union broke out along the Manchurian border. 1929 Nov 18 Stalin sent troops to Manchuria. 1929 Dec 22 Soviet troops left Manchuria after a truce was reached with the Chinese over the Eastern Railway dispute. 1931 Sep 18 The Mukden Incident was initiated by the Japanese Kwantung Army in Mukden, without its own government's consent. It involved an explosion along the Japanese-controlled South Manchurian Railway. It was soon followed by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the eventual establishment of the Japanese-dominated state of Manchukuo to ensure a supply of natural resources. The neutrality of the area, and the ability of Japan to defend its colony in Korea, was threatened in the 1920s by efforts at unification of China. Within three months Japanese troops had spread out throughout Manchuria, an occupation that finally ended at the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945. 1931 Sep 18 Japan took Manchuria and renamed it Manchukuo. 1931 Sep 19 Japanese troops conquer Mukden, South Manchuria. 1931 Nov 20 Japan and China rejected the League of Council terms for Manchuria at Geneva. 1932 Jan 02 Japanese forces in Manchuria set up a puppet government known as Manchukuo. 1932 Feb 18 Manchurian independence was formally declared. 1932 Jan 31 The Soviet premier told Japan to get out of Manchuria. 1945 Aug 16 U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Corregidor on May 6, 1942, was released from a POW camp in Manchuria by U.S. troops. 1948 Nov 01 Mao's Red army conquered Mukden, Manchuria. 1952 Nov 29 A CIA spy plane with John T. Downey (22) and Richard G. Fecteau (25) was shot down over Manchuria. The 2 men were captured and spent 20 years in a Chinese prison.

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