Kwantung Army Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921–1928 Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991 Michael J Schroeder Kwantung Army Japan’s military presence in and domination of Manchuria in northwestern China received a major victory with the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 Under the Treaty of Portsmouth, Japan was required to withdraw its troops from Manchuria proper but gained a leased territory of the Liaotung (Liaodong) Peninsula in southern Manchuria, renamed the Kwantung Leased Territory, which included the fortress and port of Port Arthur The army unit assigned to garrison the area and the Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railway (SMR), as far as Changchun, was named the Kwantung Army From this date this army became the spearhead of Japanese imperialism in China With the railway administration working as a colonial power, running ports, harbors, tax collection, mines, and utility companies, the SMR turned the railway zone into a semiautonomous state, and the Kwantung Army was its security and police arm After World War I, Japan gained control of former German holdings at Tsingtao in China’s Shandong (Shantung) Province and deployed 70,000 troops from the Kwantung Army to Siberia to support the Whites in the Russian Civil War The Japanese sought to expand their empire in Siberia, failed to so, and withdrew in 1922 In 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek’s troops were marching on Shandong to break the power of local warlords in the Northern Expedition, Japanese troops were sent to Shandong (Shantung) Soon Chinese and Japanese troops were clashing Chiang withdrew his forces from the city of Tsinan, but the Kwantung Army attacked it the next day, killing 13,000 civilians Chiang turned his troops away from conflict with Japan Tokyo, however, supported the Kwantung Army, issuing warnings to Chiang and Manchurian warlord Zang Zolin (Chang Tso-lin) not to attack Japanese forces or civilians However, the new commander of the Kwantung Army, General Chotaro Muraoka, had other ideas, moving his headquarters in May 1928 from Port Arthur to Mukden, Manchuria’s main city, and preparing his troops to take control of the region Ready to move, Muraoka and his troops waited, firing telegrams to Tokyo asking permission to move 193 When Prime Minister Giichi Tanaka refused, the Kwantung Army’s officers were stunned Muraoka decided to kill Zang Zolin, blasting a bridge as the warlord’s train crossed it on June 4, 1928 The Kwantung Army reported to Tokyo that Zang had been killed by Manchurian guerrillas The truth came out anyway, and Tokyo could seemingly little to control the insubordinate army and its officers, who had a lot of support in Japan But Tanaka was determined to punish the officers responsible for the assassination plot and recommended so to Emperor Hirohito, who agreed But when the army as a whole objected, Tanaka temporized He fired Muraoka and told the public that there was no evidence the Kwantung Army had been involved in the plot Then Tanaka resigned The Kwantung Army’s officers had defied Tokyo and gotten away with it As the Great Depression wore on, the Japanese economy continued to crumble Many Japanese army officers, angered by the economic situation, joined secret societies like the Cherry Blossom League, and a group of officers plotted to use the Kwantung Army to seize Manchuria for its rich resources One of the key men was Colonel Doihara Kenji, who prepared a “Plan for Acquiring Manchuria and Mongolia.” Chiang Kai-shek, meanwhile, had succeeded in unifying China under the Kuomintang, and Zhang Xueliang (Chang Hsueh-liang), Manchuria’s new warlord, supported the Nationalist, or Kuomintang, government In 1931 clashes broke out between Korean farmers who were Japanese subjects and Chinese farmers over water rights Doihara went to Manchuria and determined that a Japanese attempt to seize Manchuria would result in international condemnation An “incident” had to be manufactured to make a Japanese occupation of Manchuria seem China’s fault In 1929 the Kwantung Army began to plot an incident under their new boss, Lieutenant General Shigeru Honjo, with Doihara as mastermind Japan’s civilian leaders did nothing to control the insubordinate Kwantung Army The emperor, however, ordered Major General Yoshitsugu Tatekawa to bring a message from him on September 15, 1931, ordering the Kwantung Army not to take any unauthorized action Unfortunately for Hirohito, Tatekawa’s assistant, Colonel Kingoro Hashimoto, was among the plotters, and he sent a message to officers of the Kwantung Army to let them know that Tatekawa was coming with imperial orders When Tatekawa arrived in Mukden on September 17, Kwantung Army