Mukden, Manchuria · September 18, 1931 The political and economic consequences of the collapse of produce prices in the Twenties and the onset of the Great Depression in Japan were marked by an unemployment rate of 25 percent in 1931, factory idleness at 50 percent, exports down by two-thirds, malnourishment in farming settlements, and high tariff barriers…
Moscow, Soviet Union · August 20, 1939 The Soviet Union and Japan, two expansionist powers that occupied portions of the Asian mainland north of China, butted heads in the Mongolian borderlands as early as 1929. (They had also fought a war in 1904–1905, the Russo-Japanese war, over influence in China, Mongolia, and Manchuria, the latter…
Tokyo, Japan · June 30, 1941 On September 19, 1931, soldiers of the Kwantung Army (eventually the largest, most prestigious branch of the Imperial Japanese Army) invaded Manchuria in Northeast China from their base at Port Arthur (present-day Dalian or Lüshun Port) and established a puppet state they called Manchukuo. This event was a massive…
Hsinking (Changchun), Manchukuo · February 18, 1932 The Meiji Restoration of Imperial rule in 1868 resulted in the downfall of Japan’s powerful military commanders, the shoguns, and the Japanese samurai warrior class. Partly as a concession to the samurai, the Japanese government embarked on an aggressive foreign policy in Manchuria in northeastern China and on the…