Manchukuo

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State of Manchuria

Chinese name
Chinese	满洲国/滿洲國
Hanyu Pinyin	Mǎnzhōuguó
Wade-Giles	Man-chou-kuo
Japanese Name
Kanji	満州国
Hepburn Romaji	Manshūkoku
Missing image Manchukuo.jpg

Manchukuo was a nominally independent puppet state set up by the Empire of Japan in Manchuria (Northeastern China) which existed from 1931 to 1945 under the leadership of Emperor Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China.

Contents

1 Political history of Manchukuo

2 Administrative divisions

3 Population

4 The Japanese population

5 Education

6 Stamps and postal history of Manchukuo

7 See also

8 External links

Political history of Manchukuo

Inner Manchuria came under strong Russian influence in the 1890s with the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway through Harbin to Vladivostok. Japanese influence replaced Russian in Inner Manchuria as a result of the Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905), and Japan laid the South Manchurian Railway in 1906 to Port Arthur (Japanese: Ryojun).

Between World War I and World War II Manchuria became a political and military battleground. Japanese influence extended into Outer Manchuria in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917, but Outer Manchuria had reverted to Soviet Russian control by 1925. Japan took advantage of the disorder following the Russian Revolution to occupy Outer Manchuria but Soviet successes and American economic pressure forced Japanese withdrawal.

During the period of the warlords in China, Chang Tso-Lin established himself in Inner Manchuria but the Japanese Kantogun found him too independent and assassinated him in 1928. After the Japanese invasion of China in 1931, Japan declared the area independent from China on February 18, 1932 as the Great Manchu State (Manchukuo, in pinyin, 'Manzhouguo'). The city of Changchun, renamed Xinjing (新京) or "New capital", became the capital of the new entity.

The Japanese installed Puyi, the last Chinese emperor of the Qing Dynasty, as chief executive in 1932, and in 1934 he became emperor of Manchukuo with the reign name of "Kang Teh" or "Tranquility and Virtue". Manchukuo thus became the "Great Manchu Empire". Zheng Xiaoxu served as Manchukuo's first prime minister until 1935, when Zhang Jinghui succeeded him.

In this manner Japan formally detached Manchukuo from China in the course of the 1930s. With Japanese investment and rich natural resources, the area became an industrial powerhouse. Education focused on practical work training for boys and domestic work for girls, all based on adherence to the "Kingly Way" and stressing loyalty to the Emperor. Eventually, Japanese became the official language taught in Manchukuo schools and Shinto became the national religion.

Few nations recognized the new state, and the League of Nations (via the Lytton Report) declared that Manchuria remained rightfully part of China, leading Japan to resign from the League in 1934. Of the major powers only Japan, Italy, and Germany recognized Manchukuo diplomatically. In addition Manchukuo gained recognition from the Japanese collaborationist government of China under Wang Jingwei, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Vatican City State.

Prior to World War II, the Japanese colonized Manchukuo and used it as a base from which to invade China. Japan's invasion of China proved to be a very costly war (in men, matériel and political integrity) — as costly to Japan as Operation Barbarossa (Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union) proved to Germany, and for the most part for similar reasons. In the summer of 1939 a border dispute between Manchukuo and Mongolia resulted in the Battle of Halhin Gol, when a combined Soviet/Mongolian force defeated the Japanese Kantogun.

In spite of the country's name, the Manchus actually consituted a minority in Manchukuo, which had Chinese as its largest ethnic group, along with large numbers of Koreans, Japanese, Mongols and smaller minorities.

The Emperor had no power at all, and all of the Manchu ministers only served as front-men for their Japanese vice-ministers, who actually made all decisions. Emperor Kang Teh lived in constant fear of his life, with some justification. The Japanese told him how to dress, how to worship and even tried to control whom he married.

On August 8, 1945 the Soviet Union declared war on Japan in accordance with the agreement at the Yalta Conference, and invaded Manchukuo from Russian Manchuria. This was called Operation August Storm. Emperor Kang Teh had hoped to escape to Japan to surrender to the Americans, but the Soviets captured him and eventually extradited him to China, where the authorities threw him in prison as a war criminal along with all other captured Manchukuo officials.

From 1945 to 1948, Manchuria (Inner Manchuria) served as a base area for the People's Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang. With Soviet encouragement, the Chinese Communists used Manchuria as a staging ground until the end of the civil war in 1949.

Administrative divisions

In 1934, Manchukuo was organized into 14 provinces (省) and 2 special municipalities (特別市).

Province name	Chinese	Pinyin	Wade-Giles	Capital
Andong	安東
Fengtian	奉天
Jinzhou	錦州
Jilin	吉林
Rehe	熱河
Jiandao	間島
Heihe	黑河
Sanjiang	三江
Longjiang	龍江
Binjiang	濱江
Xing'anbei	興安北
Xing'andong	興安東
Xing'annan	興安南
Xing'anxi	興安西

Municipality Name	Chinese	Pinyin	Wades-Giles
Xinjing	新京
Harbin	哈爾濱

In 1939, Manchukuo was reorganized into 19 provinces and one special municipality. The Harbin municipality was abolished and four new provinces were added.

Province name	Chinese	Pinyin	Wade-Giles	Capital
Mudanjiang	牡丹江
Tonghua	通化
Andong	東安
Beidong	北安
Siping	四平

Population

In 1908 the number of residents was 15,834,000, which rose to 30,000,000 in 1931 and 43,000,000 for the Manchukuo state. The population balance remained 123 men to 100 women and the total number in 1941 was 50,000,000.

In early 1934 the total population of Manchukuo was estimated as 30,880,000, with 6.1 persons the average family, and 122 men for each 100 women. Those were made up of 30,190,000 Chinese, 590,760 Japanese, and 98,431 other nationalities (Russians, Mongols,etc). The Chinese numbers included 680,000 Koreans. Around 80% of the population was rural. Other statistics indicate that in Manchukuo the population rose by 18,000,000.

From Japanese sources come also these numbers: in 1940 the total population in Manchukuo of Heilungjiang, Jehol, Kirin, Liaoning (Fengtieng) and Hsingan provinces at 43,233,954; or an Interior Ministery figure of 31,008,600. Another figure of the period evaluated the total population as 36,933,000 residents.

Other sources evaluated the total of residents in Manchukuo how more of Million of Manchus and one Million of Koreans in land and exists cyphers of Japanese arrended lands why the Chinese migrants are ones 14,917,000 or 18,000,000 in 1910 for growning to ones 25,266,000 in 1926, more of Million in 1927 and 44,459,524 in 1940(included Jehol).

The net grown of habitants in Manchukuo from 1924 to 1930 are ones upper to fourth of Million,arriving to 836,000 in 1927,but in recent times these cyphers are redouced motivated possibly for controlls of new regime in Manchuria or chinese pacification in nearest areas-

About cities can to mentioned the next cyphers:

Yingkow(119,000 or 180,871 in 1940)
Mukden(339,000 or 1,135,801 in 1940)
Hsinking or Changchung(126,000 or 544,202 in 1940)
Harbin(405,000 or 661,948 in 1940,of theirs stay ones 35,000 or 100,000 Russians)
Dairen(400,000 or 555,562 in 1939)
Antung(92,000 or 315,242 in 1940)
Kirin(119,000 or 173,624 in 1940)
Tsitsihar(75,000 in 1940)

The Japanese population

There are various statistics.

In 1931-32 there were 100,000 Japanese farmers; other sources mention 590,760 inhabitants of Japanese nationality. Other figures for Manchukuo speak of 240,000 Japanese, growing to 837,000. In Hsinking they made up 25% of the population. The Japanese government had official plans projecting emigration to Manchukuo between 1936 to 1956 of 5,000,000 residents. Between 1938 and 1942 a contingent of young farmers of 200,000 arrived in Manchukuo; joining those group after 1936 were 20,000 complete families. When Japan lost sea and air control of the Yellow Sea this migration stopped.

When the Red Army invaded Manchukuo, they captured 850,000 Japanese settlers. With the exception of some civil servants and soldiers, these were repatriated to Japan in 1946-47.

Education

During the Japanese occupation, education developed. They set up or founded many schools and technical colleges, 12,000 primary schools in Manchukuo, 200 middle schools, 140 normal schools (for preparing teachers), and 50 technical and professional schools. In total the system had 600,000 children and young pupils and 25,000 teachers. There were 1,600 private schools (with Japanese permits), 150 missionary schools and in Harbin 25 Russian schools.

Stamps and postal history of Manchukuo

Manchukuo issued its first postage stamps on July 28, 1932. A number of denominations existed, with two designs: the pagoda at Liaoyang and a portrait of Puyi. Originally the inscription read (in Chinese) "Manchu State Postal Administration"; in 1934, a new issue read "Manchu Empire Postal Administration". An orchid crest design appeared in 1935, and a design featuring the Sacred White Mountains in 1936.

1936 also saw a new regular series featuring various scenes and surmounted by the orchid crest. Between 1937 and 1945, the government issued a variety of commemoratives: for anniversaries of its own existence, to note the passing of new laws, and to honor Japan in various ways, for instance, on the 2600th anniversary of the Japanese Empire in 1940. The last issue of Manchukuo came on May 2, 1945, commemorating the 10th anniversary of an edict.

After the dissolution of the government, successor postal authorities locally handstamped many of the remaining stamp stocks with ideograms reading "Republic of China" and so forth. In addition, the Port Arthur and Dairen Postal Administration overprinted many Manchukuo stamps between 1946 and 1949.

**Manchukuo** 1932 - 1945
Personal Names	Period of Reigns	era names (年號) and their corresponding range of years
All given names in bold.
Aixinjuelo Puyi 愛新覺羅溥儀 ai4 xin1 jue2 luo2 pu3 yi2	March 1932 - August 1945	Datong (大同 da4 tong2) 1932 Kangde (康德 kang1 de2) 1934

External links

Manchukuo Flags at crwflags.com (http://www.crwflags.com): [1] (http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/cn_j_mk.html), [2] (http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/cn_j^mrf.html), [3] (http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/cn_j_tp.html)