Links

Reed Brett on Manchuria

Outline account

History Learning site - good

Japanese foreign policy - summary 

Detailed account - difficult

Battle for Australia - a VERY difficult site which sees the incident in the wider perspective of growing Japanese aggression

The Dispute:          

In the 1930s there was a world-wide economic depression.   Japan tried to overcome the depression by building up an empire.

        In 1932, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria and  threw out the Chinese.   They set up their own government there and called it Manchoukuo.

China asked the League to help.

What the League did:

The League sent a group of officials led by Lord Lytton to study the problem (this took a year).

In February 1933 it ordered Japan to leave Manchuria.

What happened:

Japan refused to leave Manchuria.   Instead, Japan left the League.

        Many countries had important trading links with Japan.   The League could not agree on sanctions or even a ban on weapons sales.   Britain and France did not want a war, so nothing was done.

The Japanese stayed in Manchuria.

The League had failed.  

Extra:

Why was the League of Nations unable to stop Japan taking over Manchuria in the 1930s - WHY did the League fail in Manchuria?

Results of Manchuria

Source A

The invasion of Manchuria had two important side effects - putting aside for a moment its dreadful revelation that the League was powerless in the face a determined aggressor.   First, it raised the prestige of the Japanese Army.   Second, it made it possible for the Army to pressurise the Japanese government to undertake a policy of armed expansion.

Tony Howarth, Twentieth Century History (1979)

A British secondary school textbook

Source B

America's consistent refusal to use nothing more than words in support of the League had shown just how toothless and helpless the international community was when it came to enforcing and upholding the peace.   A dangerous precedent had been set.

John Costello, The Pacific War (1981)

Source C

I know this sounds all wrong, perhaps immoral, when Japan is flouting the League of Nations, but (1) she was greatly provoked, (2) she must ere long expand somewhere - for goodness sake let (or rather encourage) her to do so there instead of Australia and (3) her control of Manchuria means a real block against Communist aggression.

A letter from the Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge University, to his friend John Simon, the British Foreign Secretary (1933)

Source D

This cartoon of 1933, by the British cartoonist David Low, is entitled: 'The Doormat'.   It shows a Japanese soldier trampling all over the League, whilst League officials bow down before him and the British Foreign Secretary John Simon powders the League's nose using a 'Face-saving kit'.  

What is the cartoonist suggesting about the League...   the Japanese Army... John Simon and the other western diplomats?

Source E

This cartoon of 1933 shows a gun labelled 'Japan' blasting a hole through international agreements such as the Kellogg Pact and the League of Nations Covenant.   What is the cartoonist suggesting about Japan?