Backgrounder: Mukden incident trigger for Japanese invasion

The “Mukden incident” of 1931 – commemorated in China every year as an act of Japanese aggression – saw Japanese troops blow up a railway in northeast China as an excuse to take over Manchuria.

Japan had already been expanding its territory in Asia militarily for several decades.

After defeating China in 1894-95 it established itself in the Korean peninsula, Taiwan and southern Manchuria, and by winning a 1904-05 war with Russia it solidified control of Korea, which it later formally colonised.

Tokyo had a particular interest in resource-rich Manchuria, a strategic location and an industrial and transport hub – benefits that seemed increasingly vital given global economic troubles at the time.

Japanese officials in Manchuria also felt growing pressure to assert control of the area to thwart rising popular dissatisfaction with their presence and increasing closeness with China “proper” south of the Great Wall.

The ethnic Han Chinese population had grown in recent decades through immigration to the region, home to the indigenous Manchus.