ABSTRACT
This case study of the Japanese colonization of Manchuria in the first half of the twentieth century shows enormous economic achievements at the cost of enduring Chinese hostility over the brutal methods employed. Japan failed to create a sense of nationhood among Manchuria’s diverse population of Han Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, Koreans, and Japanese. In an attempt to leverage cultural differences, Japan created segregated worlds that could not coalesce into a nation. Although it established an elaborate system of state institutions, the fiction of Manchu imperial rule and the reality of Kwantung Army dominance meant that the state institutions disappeared along with the Japanese Army upon its defeat in World War II. However, Japan did create an enduring transportation and communication infrastructure as well as a comprehensive heavy industrial base of mining, metallurgy, and machine tools that transformed Manchuria into the most industrialized part of Asia outside the Japanese home islands. 1
