Harbin to Hanoi: Colonial Built Environment in Asia, 1840 to 1940

4. France, Brossard Mopin, and Manchukuo

4 France, Brossard Mopin, and Manchukuo David Tucker In September 1931, the Japanese colonial army in Manchuria, the Kwantung Army, began operations to take over Manchuria, the northeastern provinces of China. The Kwantung Army long had exercised strong influence over Zhang Zuolin, a regional military authority based in Shenyang, but had grown dissatisfied with his failure to cooperate completely and his military adventurism in North China. In June 1928, Zhang, defeated by Chiang Kai-shek’s Guomindang Army, returned to Shenyang from a failed attempt to control Beijing. As his train approached Shenyang, a group of Kwantung Army officers exploded a bomb, destroying his railcar and assassinating him. Zhang’s son, Zhang Xueliang, succeeded him, but instead of being the weak and pliable leader the Kwantung Army expected, he allied with the Guomindang and attempted to reduce Japanese influence. In 1931, a group of Kwantung Army officers, seeing Zhang as a fundamental threat to Japanese interests, decided it was necessary to control Manchuria directly. On September 18, they staged another bombing and used it as an excuse to attack Chinese troops in Manchuria. Within a few months, the Kwantung Army had seized a substantial part of Manchuria, and had decided to install a new regime. Rather than allow a new warlord to take power, the army encouraged the formation of an autonomy movement, headed by local Chinese officials, that would endorse the formation of a new state. On March 1, 1932, the committee declared that Manchuria was independent of the Republic of China and the Guomindang regime, and announced the establishment of a new nation, Manchukuo. Making use of the research bureau and other resources of the Japanese colonial railway company, the South Manchuria Railway, the Kwantung Army quickly began an economic 60 David Tucker and political transformation of the region. Japan was a signatory of the 1922 Nine Powers Treaty that guaranteed the territorial and administrative integrity of China. The Kwantung Army’s seizure of Manchuria could easily be seen as a violation of this treaty, and well as of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand, in which the signatories, including Japan, renounced “war as an instrument of national policy.” The Kwantung Army countered that it acted only in support of the wishes for good government of the people of Manchuria who had established Manchukuo of their own volition. The new state of Manchukuo and its institutions then served to extend the Kwantung Army’s control over Manchuria, as a vehicle to develop the region’s resources, and as a means to deflect international criticism and to channel that criticism into acceptance or even support. The Great Powers and the League of Nations might object to Japanese rule of Manchuria, but presenting that control in the form of an independent state, Manchukuo, gave them a potentially face-saving fiction much easier to accept. Even if the United States or Britain did not extend diplomatic recognition to Manchukuo, they might find themselves entangled in dealing with its institutions. The Japanese and Manchukuo governments made considerable effort to draw out acknowledgements of Manchukuo’s existence in ways used for similar ends later in the twentieth century, such as sports diplomacy,1 tourism, contests, expositions, and world’s fairs.2 Even if full diplomatic recognition were not achieved, it was worthwhile to keep the Great Powers engaged in extended negotiations and disputes, be it over the most trivial matters. Investment and trade were particularly important areas in which to attract foreign acknowledgement and co-operation. They could appeal, during the bad economic years of the 1930s, to governments anxious about their own economies, or to interests that could pressure those governments to relax their anti-Manchukuo stances. Rumors of possible opportunities and deals made by rivals could attract and hold interest, negotiations could be extended for months and years, and one group could be played off against another—all providing reasons to keep open the possibilities of recognition of Manchukuo and acceptance of the occupation. Foreign investment and trade also could supplement scarce Japanese capital for Manchuria’s development. The France, Brossard Mopin, and Manchukuo 61 Kwantung Army’s plans for Manchukuo were highly ambitious and elaborate, but the army faced financial and resource constraints. On the other hand, some Japanese held that Manchukuo’s development was a matter of Japanese pride, an accomplishment that should not be diluted by foreign interference, or that Manchuria’s iron, coal, and other resources should...