Communists got Manchukuo (1)

Study of Manchukuo implies a lot of resources to us even now. Historically and geopolitically Japan and US are to cooperate for covering up continental superpowers but conflict for each profit in the continent. The two countries opened fire for the dream land, Manchukuo. Who won that area after all? Japan lost all, the US didn't won, and the continental super powers took all.

My claim throughout this article series is that the WWII between Japan and the US was determined already in 1931 when Japan seized Manchukuo. With a number of resemblances of situations, Japan nowadays have been seeing the future of Iraq or Iran superimposing on the aftermath of Manchukuo. The heartland country Manchukuo failed. So will the plan of Iraq and Iran fail. It's going to take a few articles to reach this conclusion. First of all, let us take an overview of the history and background of the Manchukuo.



The flag of Manchukuo consists of five colors. The base, yellow implies the color of Manchu. Red is assigned for Japan, blue for Hun(China), white for Mongol, and black for Korea. The concept with the five colors was called "五族協和"(five ethnics in coordination), a dreamy slogan.

You might say it's a propaganda. Of course the Japanese military neglected the coordinative cabinet's order. The military conducted assasination of the leader and allegedly obtained Manchuria. The Japanese people and media supported the military's runaway. Since the people permitted the military's dogma, the system of civilian control began to be out of control. There were many other greedy aspects Japan was showing at that time. However, there must be something more than those "evil Japanese" that I have been taught in school.

In order to reveal the circumstances of the period and the puppet country, I went to a nearby library where I found several books focusing on Manchuria. I found a book interesting because it was written by an American but published in Japan. Which country did he write this book in favor of?


"Manchukuo a bird's-eye view", James A. B. Scherer, Hokuseido Press(1933).


I opened the last page and found an intriguing phrase in the end.

She(Japan) made mistakes - what country hasn't? - but she is building a model State as a bulwark between Chinese anarchy and Russian communism, and as an object-lesson to China. She(Japan) is the spear-head of the West thrust between China and Russia, fighting a lone hand. If Theodore Roosevelt's Asiatic policy had been followed, perhaps she could have been spared some of the mistakes she has made during the last quarte-century. She might today be America's best friend in Asia. It is not yet too late to win her back.

What do you think about this? This book must indeed be written for Japan's profit probably with support of a Japanese publisher or supposedly government. The "mistake" he refers to as would be Japanese invasion into Manchuria with all the explosion and assassination of the local leader. And he concludes that America shouldn't become hostile on Japan's policy, and he suggests a satisfactory solution, "international cooperation in the internal reconstruction in China." Obviously his and Japan's plead didn't reach Washington.

When he wrote this book in 1933, he already foresaw occurence of the future war between Japan and the US. Hmm, Interesting. Although the world may look the runaway of Japanese military as dangerous enemy, the author didn't seem to share the same perspective. So what was he claiming as the threat? Firstly he points out China's anarchy.

A report in May, 1931, by General Ho Ying-chin, then leading his fourth campaign against Chinese Reds, estimated that since the middle of 1928 the communists had massacred over 260,000 people, burned 220,000 houses and destroyed about $200,000,000 worth of property, American money. In addition, 1,500,000 people had fled from their homes.

We hardly know that China was in anarchy at that time, and Chinese militaries invaded castles and massacre people inside. In China, massacring civilains inside castles has been historically and widely taking place. There's even a term, "屠城(slaughter castle)". In such situations, it was not desirable to continue or expand economical activities from European and American point of view.

Secondly, he notices the threat of Sovietism, prevailing into a south province of China and northern states, Manchuria, as shown in the map below. The shaded areas denote the places where Sovietism was influential. It is interesting that Sovietism or communism grew their strong influence along the railroads in Manchukuo (see the map). As written above, 260,000 people were already massacred by communists. Therefore, the author regards the invasion of communists as "nightmare of Japan".



Espionage, terrorism or propaganda by Soviet communists must have been a piece of cake in Manchukuo, for there's already 70,000 Russians living in Harbin. Manchuria was slowly leaving from Japan's hand.