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Mukden Incident

The Mukden Incident (September 18, 1931), also called Manchurian Incident, occurred in northern Manchuria when the Japanese blew up a section of their own railroad near Mukden (today's Shenyang). Japan's military accused Chinese dissidents of the act, thus providing an excuse for the Japanese annexation of Manchuria.

After the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Japan had replaced Russia as the dominant foreign power in Southern Manchuria.


Colonel Seishiro Itagaki and Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara planned the incident in which officers of the Shimamoto Regiment, which guarded the South Manchuria Railway, arranged for sappers to place explosives beneath the tracks. After the explosion, the Japanese immediately framed the Chinese soldiers garrisoned nearby and attacked those troops under the justification that Japanese property must be protected from assaults by the Chinese.

Even though the Japanese cabinet opposed the move and the leaders pledged to the League of Nations they would pull out, the army subsequently established the puppet state of Manchukuo in February 1932. Japan subsequently pulled out of the League of Nations.

The Government of the People's Republic of China opened the 9.18 Incident Exhibition Museum at Shenyang (present-day name of Mukden) on September 18, 1991. Then Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was one of the notable visitors of the museum in 1997.

See also:

External link

  • http://www.bartleby.com/65/ma/ManchuriI.html


Last updated: 02-08-2005 13:44:20
Last updated: 05-01-2005 16:26:47