Mukden incident

The Mukden incident was a staged event used to justify a military invasion. It occurred in Manchuria, a region in Northeast China. This event is also known as the Manchurian incident. In Chinese, the specific attack is called the Liutiao Lake incident. The entire sequence of events is often called the September 18 incident. It was a false flag operation. This means military personnel staged the event to blame others. They wanted a pretext, or a reason, to start a war.

Before the incident, tensions between Japan and China were very high. Japan had grown its economic and political interests in Manchuria since 1905. The Japanese government controlled the South Manchuria Railway. They claimed absolute administration within the railway zone. Japanese soldiers were stationed there to provide security. However, these soldiers often performed maneuvers outside the railway areas. In 1929, a conflict between China and the Soviet Union occurred. This conflict involved the Chinese Eastern Railroad. The Soviet victory revealed Chinese military weaknesses. It also showed that the Soviet Red Army was very strong. This event shook Japanese policy and accelerated plans to conquer the Northeast.

In 1931, several Japanese officers began to plot a secret invasion. Colonel Seishirō Itagaki and Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara developed a plan. They wanted to provoke a conflict with Chinese forces. They chose a site near Liutiao Lake for the sabotage. This area was not militarily important. It was only 800 meters from a Chinese garrison called Beidaying. The plan was to cause an explosion and blame Chinese troops. This would make a Japanese invasion look like a legitimate defense.

The execution of the plan happened on September 18, 1931. At 10:20 p.m., Lieutenant Suemori Kawamoto detonated explosives. He used a small quantity of dynamite near the railway tracks. The explosion was very weak. It only damaged a 1.5-meter section of the rail on one side. The damage was not enough to stop a train. In fact, a train from Changchun passed over the site minutes later. The train arrived in Shenyang at 10:30 p.m. without any trouble.

On the morning of September 19, the Japanese military responded to their own attack. They used artillery to fire on the nearby Chinese garrison. About 500 Japanese troops attacked the Chinese garrison of 7,000 soldiers. The Japanese also destroyed the small Chinese air force. The Chinese troops were defeated and fled. By that evening, the Japanese had occupied the city of Mukden.

The invasion moved quickly across the region. Within five months, the Imperial Japanese Army occupied all major cities in Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. Japan then established a puppet state called Manchukuo.

Several factors made it difficult for China to defend Manchuria. The Chinese leader Zhang Xueliang had a large army. His forces included 250,000 men, 60 aircraft, and 4,000 machine guns. However, his troops were often under-trained and poorly fed. Many soldiers lacked loyalty or had low morale. Also, many of his troops were located south of the Great Wall. This meant they were not concentrated enough to fight effectively. The Japanese Kwantung Army also had a strong reserve force. They could move troops quickly by railway from Korea.

The Chinese government was also facing many internal problems. They were dealing with the aftermath of massive floods in the Yangtze River. These floods created tens of thousands of refugees. The government was also occupied with the Chinese Communist Party. Because of these issues, the defense of Manchuria was difficult. The incident changed the course of history in East Asia. Today, museums in Changchun and Harbin preserve the history of these events.

They help people understand the complex causes of the conflict.