ABSTRACT
In September 1931, the Japanese Army, specifically the Kwangtung Army, a part of it stationed in Manchuria, the northeast part of China, to defend the South Manchuria Railways, started military movements and occupied the whole of Manchuria by the end of February 1932.1 In the next month, foundation of a new state, Manchukuo, was declared. Formally, Manchukuo was an independent state with its own government, but in reality the Kwantung Army totally controlled the state.2 Because the Japanese Army was keen on expanding the capacity of munitions production, and Manchuria was supposed to be richly endowed with natural resources, the Kwangtung Army and the Manchukuo government tried to develop munitions industries and basic material industries rapidly in Manchuria. In the new state, where there were few existing legal constraints, the Kwantung Army and the Manchukuo government started almost with a clean slate. However, they did not have a solid program in the first place. Indeed, as stated in what follows, the process of Manchurian development in the 1930s and 1940s was full of trial and error.
