September 18

  • JAPANESE ARMY SEIZES MANCHURIA

    ByNorm Haskett Reading Time: 7 minutes

    Tokyo, Japan • September 18, 1931 The assassination of the Manchurian war­lord Zhang Zuolin in June 1928 was the first in a daisy change of major Sino-Japanese crises faced by the new Japa­nese emperor, Hiro­hito (post­humously referred to as Em­peror Shōwa), whose reign began 18 months before. Manchu­ria (some­times referred to by its histor­ical name Guan­dong)…

  • JAPAN PROVOKED, SEIZES MANCHURIA

    ByNorm Haskett Reading Time: 6 minutes

    Mukden, Manchuria · September 18, 1931 The political and economic consequences of the col­lapse of pro­duce prices in the 1920s 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…