1931 - Japan invades Manchuria

In order to secure resources for its expanding industries, Japan invaded the northern Chinese province of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, an explosion destroyed a section of railway track near the city of Mukden. The Japanese, who owned the railway, blamed Chinese nationalists for the incident and used the opportunity to retaliate and invade Manchuria. However, others speculated that the bomb may have been planted by mid-level officers in the Japanese Army to provide a pretext for the subsequent military action.

Within a few short months, the Japanese Army had overrun the region, having encountered next to no resistance from an untrained Chinese Army, and it went about consolidating its control on the resource-rich area. The Japanese declared the area to be the new autonomous state of Manchukuo, though the new nation was in fact under the control of the local Japanese Army.

​Although many Western nations protested the Japanese action, most members of the League of Nations, including Canada, opposed any form of military intervention to defend Chinese sovereignty. A League of Nations commission, headed by the British diplomat Lord Lytton, was dispatched to Manchuria to investigate. The Lytton Commission branded the Japanese as aggressors but urged the League to recognize Japan's right to maintain a military force in Manchuria to protect its economic interests.

​Meanwhile, the Japanese government established a puppet regime in Manchuria and formally withdrew from the League of Nations. The Japanese action in Manchuria was the first of a series of expansionist military operations that would eventually lead to a confrontation with Britain and the United States in the Far East.

---

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HISTORICAL EVENTS IN the 1930s VISIT History0x - https://www.history0x.com/1930s

---

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HISTORICAL EVENTS IN the 1930s VISIT History0x