Japan's Invasion of Manchuria

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Japan's Invasion of Manchuria

Since the 1900 Japan's economy and population had been growing

rapidly. Japan had a very powerful army and navy which often dictated

government policy. It has a strong industry, exporting goods to the

USA and China, and had built up a healthy empire which included the

Korean peninsular.

The depression that occurred hit Japan particularly badly. Both China

and the USA (Buying Japanese goods) put up Tariffs (trade barriers)

against Japanese goods. Once the American Wall Street Crash happened,

it put the Japanese economy in crisis. Without this vital trade, Japan

had no way to feed its people. Army leaders concluded the only way to

feed its people was to build a Japanese empire by force, this would

involve expanding and taking over the southern part of China.

In 1931, an incident in Manchuria gave the Japanese the opportunity

they had been waiting for; the Japanese army controlled the South

Manchurian Railway. In September 1931, Japan claimed that Chinese

soldiers had sabotaged the railway, and in retaliation, they took over

Manchuria and threw all the Chinese forces out. In February 1932, they

set up a 'puppet' government that took orders from the Japanese army.

In the later part of 1932 Japanese bombers, bombed Shanghai, the

government told the army to withdraw but the order was ignored,

showing that the Government was in control of Japanese foreign

policies.

What did the League do in response?

This was a test for the League, Japan was a leading member of the

League, this situation needed careful handling.

China appealed to the league, Japan claimed it was not invading as an

aggressor but simply settling a local difficulty. The Japanese stated

that it invade in self-defence to keep the peace as China was in a

state of ruin. For the Chinese there was a long delay, the League

officials sailed around the world to assess the situation for

themselves. In September 1932 ( a full year after invasion) the league

presented their report. It concluded that Japan was in the wrong and

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