The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-1932

by Yoshihisa Tak Matsusaka

Overview

In this history of Japanese involvement in northeast China, the author argues that Japan's military seizure of Manchuria in September 1931 was founded on three decades of infiltration of the area. This incremental empire-building and its effect on Japan are the focuses of this book.

The principal agency in the piecemeal growth of Japanese colonization was the South Manchurian Railway Company, and by the mid-1920s Japan had a deeply entrenched presence in Manchuria and exercised a dominant economic and political influence over the area. Japanese colonial expansion in Manchuria also loomed large in Japanese politics, military policy, economic development, and foreign relations and deeply influenced many aspects of Japan's interwar history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674012066
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2003
Series:	Harvard East Asian Monographs , #196
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Yoshihisa Tak Matsusaka is Associate Professor of History at Wellesley College.

Table of Contents

	Maps and Tables	xiii
	Romanization and Railway Nomenclature	xv
	Abbreviations	xvii
	Introduction	1
1	War, Opportunity, and Empire, 1904-1905	17
	Meiji Imperialism: An Art of the Possible	20
	A War for the Open Door	30
	Volte-Face	36
	The Harriman Affair and the Manchurian Army	43
	The Russo-Japanese War as a Turning Point	54
2	The Trojan Horse, 1905-1907	60
	The Inheritance: Russian Designs	61
	Japanese Adaptations	73
	Bureaucratic Turf Wars and the Origins of the South Manchuria Railway Company	86
	The Army, the Navy, and Manchuria	92
3	Managing Manchuria, 1907-1911	103
	Defense and the Receding Danger of War	104
	Railway Diplomacy and Shifting Alignments	114
	The Business of the SMR	126
	Profits and Policy	139
4	The Chinese Revolution, the Taisho Political Crisis, and the Debate over Manchuria, 1911-1914	149
	Japanese Imperialism and the Chinese Revolution	150
	Moderate Leadership and the Taisho Coalition	152
	Manchurian Initiatives Under the Taisho Coalition	160
	Whither Japanese Manchuria?	172
5	Imperialist Adaptations, 1914-1918	186
	The Twenty-One Demands and the Failure of Concession Hunting	187
	Imperial Policies of the "Korean Clique"	198
	New Strategies: The Nishihara Loans	207
	New Aims: Autarky	214
	The Fall of the Terauchi Government	223
6	The Politics of Imperialist Compromise, 1918-1922	227
	Moderate Ascendancy and the Decline of Army Power	229
	The American Challenge and Japan's Retreat in Manchuria	235
	Alternative Strategies: Industrial Manchuria	250
	Chang Tsolin: Deus ex Machina	258
7	The New Diplomacy and the New Imperialism, 1921-1925	267
	Defense and Diplomacy, 1921-23	267
	Chinese Railway Initiatives	273
	Matsuoka Yosuke and the "New Imperialism"	281
	The Railway Bargain of 1924	289
	Intervention, Escalation, and the "Invisible War" in North Manchuria	293
	Industrial Manchuria: Mixed Results	304
8	Troubled Partnership, 1926-1928	312
	Inflation, Railway Disputes, and the Deterioration of Relations with Chang Tso-lin	313
	The Second Eastern Conference and Critiques of Manchuria Policy	327
	Tanaka's Attempt to Restore the Partnership	333
	The Assassination of Chang Tso-lin	344
9	The Sino-Japanese Railway War and the Manchurian Crisis, 1928-1931	349
	Tanaka Giichi and Chang Hsueh-liang	350
	The Collapse of an Imperialist Middle Ground	354
	The Sino-Japanese Railway War, 1929-31	363
	The Making of a Radical Synthesis	377
	The Manchurian Incident	381
	Conclusion	389
	Appendixes
A	Selected SMR Statistics	411
B	Population Statistics, Japanese Manchuria	414
	Reference Matter
	Notes	419
	Works Cited	481
	Glossary of Chinese Place-names	507
	Index	511

Editorial Reviews

Lurking behind the deceptively specialist title of this monograph lies an important and engaging book...In the described historical events, Japan found itself pulled deeper and deeper into a quagmire that led to a disastrous war. Matsusaka uses a chronological approach to examine the roles of the Foreign Ministry, the Army, and the South Manchuria Railway. The result casts great light on a crucial phase of Japanese imperial history while at the same time enthralling the reader with a tale to compete with a good novel.

Choice - R. B. Lyman Jr.

Lurking behind the deceptively specialist title of this monograph lies an important and engaging book...In the described historical events, Japan found itself pulled deeper and deeper into a quagmire that led to a disastrous war. Matsusaka uses a chronological approach to examine the roles of the Foreign Ministry, the Army, and the South Manchuria Railway. The result casts great light on a crucial phase of Japanese imperial history while at the same time enthralling the reader with a tale to compete with a good novel.--R. B. Lyman Jr. "Choice" (11/1/2001 12:00:00 AM)

From the Publisher

Lurking behind the deceptively specialist title of this monograph lies an important and engaging book...In the described historical events, Japan found itself pulled deeper and deeper into a quagmire that led to a disastrous war. Matsusaka uses a chronological approach to examine the roles of the Foreign Ministry, the Army, and the South Manchuria Railway. The result casts great light on a crucial phase of Japanese imperial history while at the same time enthralling the reader with a tale to compete with a good novel.
— R. B. Lyman Jr.

Choice