Abstract
Japan's ambitions on the Asiatic mainland are now a matter of history. The Kwantung Army and the South Manchurian Railway Co. wished to repeat the achievements of the East India Co. One rattled the sword while the other worked with facts and figures, in order to lay the foundation for an empire. They had great achievements to their credit, and final success eluded them only because the whole world was against them.
When the Kwantung Army created the “Manchurian Incident” of September 18, 1931, it undoubtedly wanted some sort of change in China's Northeast, though it is doubtful that it had at that time fully set the course of the action that it took during the ensuing months. Finding things easy, it decided to feel its way into North China. Early in 1933 it went into Jehol and then crossed the Great Wall, the adventure ending in the Tangku Truce of May 31, 1933. In 193S it forced the Chinese Government to remove General Yü Hsüeh-chung and his troops from Hopei, to close down Kuomintang Party headquarters in North China, and to dissolve the Peiping Political Council. But by that time the Japanese militarists had already set their hearts on an “autonomous” North China under their control.
