Manchurian Crisis 1931-33

In 1931, the Japanese Empire controlled the South Manchuria Railway. In the September the Japanese claimed that the Chinese had sabotaged the railway. Using this pretense the Japanese army invaded and over ran Manchuria with Japanese forces. They removed the Chinese defensive forces and renamed the area Manchukuo. In Manchukuo they created a puppet government which would do as Japan commanded.

China appealed directly to the League of Nations for support in the matter, as part of their territory had been invaded by Japan. The League sent officials to Manchuria, but the journey was long, it took a significant amount of time for the officials to arrive. It was therefore, an entire year before the League was able to publish the report in to the situation in Manchuria. The report itself was detailed and declared that Japan was in the wrong.

Japan should have then withdrawn from Manchuria, but instead decided it was going to continue the invasion of China. Japan’s argument was still one of self defence, and argued that it was necessary to protect itself from China. After the League voted to approve the report against Japan, Japan left the League, withdrawing its support.

This removal of Japan was a major blow to the League. What remained attempted to enforce economic sanctions against Japan, but were hampered by the fact that the biggest trading partner was the United States, who were not in the League. Britain also undermined the efforts of the League in punishing Japan as it wanted to keep good relations with the Japanese. Everytime the League came close to decision it would be averted as the members did not want a war to happen.

The only countries who could do something about Japan were the Soviet Union or America, as as neither of those were in the League, it was unlikely to happen. The Manchurian Crisis proved to international observers such as Italy and Germany that the League was powerless to stop international aggression.