Roots of Samurai Rage V
The Kwantung Army and its Railway Company
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There were several events and phenomena in Japan’s history that supplied ample fuel to a simmering fire that seemed to have been burning in the minds of much of the military and naval leadership of Japan before 1941. While much of Japan was quietly intent on merely surviving, the dominant social group in the archipelago was constantly trying to either stay in charge or justify having been in charge. This essay is one of several that visit the most important elements of samurai rage against the West and their own subjects, and their constant fear of being overthrown or even contradicted. As shown by the various “insults” and momentous events in Japan over the centuries, the formation of movements and societies and the ensuing incidents happened all too easily. Too, Japan and the Japanese were apparently masters at holding a grudge.
The Liaotung Peninsula of China—where the Kwantung Army had its beginnings—would become the seat of IJA fanaticism (“Kwantung” literally means “east of Shanhai Pass,” one of the major passes in the Great Wall of China). It was also the home of one of the most corrupt commercial concerns in East Asia, the South Manchuria Railway Company (Minami Manshū Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha, also known simply as the Manchurian Railway, Mantetsu).
A group of politicians deciding to dump a president because his morals are bad is like the Mafia getting together to bump off the godfather for not going to church on Sunday.
Russell Baker
The South Manchurian Railway was just a “railway” company in much the same way as the British East India Company was a mere importer of tea. The area it operated in originated as a secret concession given/sold to Russia in 1897 to help pay China’s indemnity to Japan from the 1894-95 war. Japan founded the firm in 1906 with an initial capitalization of ¥200 million for operation and development. By the time the firm began operations, the area had been under three different emperors in eleven years and was on economically shaky ground.
It operated (theoretically) within the South Manchuria Railway Zone (Minami Manshū Tetsudō Fuzoku-chi, sometimes known by the initials SMZ), a 683 and a half mile long by 203 feet wide slice of Manchuria with a total land area of 96.5 square miles. These tracks extended along a 434 mile (700 kilometer) single-track rail line from the port of Dalian to Changchun. It also included the 161-mile Mukden (Shenyang) to Antung (Dandong) route and several other spurs. These rail lines connected some 25 cities and towns, and included warehouses, repair shops, coal mines and electrical plants to maintain the trains. For obvious reasons, the Zone was in many places wider than 200 feet.
To protect this precious asset, Japan formed the Kwantung Garrison in April 1906. At first, the Garrison comprised about 100,000 men: an infantry division, a heavy artillery battalion and six independent garrison battalions deployed along the rail lines and in the larger urban areas. There was also a Consular Police that, theoretically, fell under the Foreign Ministry, but functionally was a part of the Kempeitai, the Army’s secret police.
Not at all shy about their intentions, the Kwantung Garrison regularly spilled out of its borders, sometimes even informing the Chinese beforehand, but rarely. By 1911, the Qing Empire collapsed under the weight of rebellions and unpaid debts, leaving the Republic of China in its wake. Though the government changed, China did not, and it still could not stop the corruption, outright theft and graft of local officials who were in contact with the Japanese. In 1919, Japan reorganized and re-designated the Kwantung Garrison as the Kwantung Army.
The SMZ began the industrialization of the region, providing huge revenues to Japan. Thus, the Kwantung Army became semi-autonomous of the home country, able to do pretty much whatever it wanted. Tokyo rarely questioned the Kwantung Army’s activities, and infrequently even mentioned them in the halls of government, except for decisions about how to keep their latest exploit/outrage from expanding into a full-blown war. By the 1920s, the company provided a quarter of Japan’s tax revenues. By 1930, the assets were worth more than ¥1 billion.
Many future leaders of wartime Japan would pass through the Kwantung Army, which became a hotbed of right-wing politics from the Showa Restoration movement of the 1920s to the Imperial Way Faction of 1936 and beyond. From its founding until the 26 February Incident, every incident, assassination, attempted and successful coup, involuntary occupation and step towards global war had, at its very heart, some element, faction, or former member of the Kwantung Army.
The Roots of Samurai Rage And Fear: The Road to Destruction
Japan’s third war with China, starting in 1931, originated entirely in the Kwantung Army, in part because the samurai there believed they could direct Japan’s foreign policy. And in part, they were right, because of the huge revenues they “guarded.”
And Finally...
On 6 December:
1917: The French cargo ship Mont-Blanc, laden with high explosives, collided with the Norwegian ship Imo in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Mont-Blanc caught fire and exploded in a blast equivalent to about 2.9 to 3 kilotons of TNT that devastated the Richmond district of Halifax and killed approximately 2,000 people.
1941: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a personal communication to the Showa Emperor Hirohito, wishing to “prevent further death and destruction” by his personal intervention. On that day, the Kido Butai of the Imperial Japanese Navy was about 700 nautical miles northwest of Pearl Harbor, Japan, on course for their target. The Showa did not respond; he may have never received it.
And today is SAINT NICHOLAS’ DAY, commemorating the death of St. Nicholas in Myra, what is now Turkey. Today is the day, however, that all the good little girls and boys get candy and treats in their shoes, and the bad ones get coal. My family, despite its part-German origins, never observed it. My wife, on the other hand, got coal one 6 December morning in Berlin.