Quotes about Manchuria

Henry L. Stimson

It is apparent that the Japanese military have initiated a widely extended movement of aggression only after careful preparation with a strategic goal in mind

The Japanese Government was in the control of ardent militarists intent on expanding the Japanese empire. They invaded Manchuria and had designs on China. The League of Nations was very weak, in large part because the United States had not joined when the Senate refused to ratify the treaty. So peace or war In Asia depended on the fascist, military clique that ruled Japan.

Noam Chomsky

I've been interested in Japan since the 1930s, when I read about Japan's vicious crimes in Manchuria and China.

Yosuke Matsuoka

Japan will oppose any attempt at international control of Manchuria. It does not mean that we defy you, because Manchuria belongs to us by right …Read your history. We recovered Manchuria from Russia. We made it what it is today …. We look into the gloom of the future and can see no certain gleam of light before us … Would the American people agree to such control of the Panama Canal Zone; would the British permit it over Egypt?

Japan, then a militaristic power in the East had occupied and controlled Manchuria after the Russo-Japanese War. The League of Nations voted that Manchuria should be placed under international control until elections and independence can be arranged. The Japanese then had a rapidly growing population and Japan felt that the Japanese Islands were not sufficient to produce the raw materials, oil and agriculture needed to sustain a larger Japanese population. Therefore, the Japanese argued that they were entitled to grow and expand to nearby territories to provide for their nation’s needs. When the league of nations rejected the Japanese position, Japan walked out of the League of Nations. Japan would occupy part of China and Korea all leading to WWII. See {627075} for the foreign minister’s later assessment.

Yosuke Matsuoka

My country is being crucified…

Japan, then a militaristic power in the East had occupied and controlled Manchuria after the Russo-Japanese War. The League of Nations voted that Manchuria should be placed under international control until elections and independence can be arranged. (See {627074}.) The Japanese then had a rapidly growing population and Japan felt that the Japanese Islands were not sufficient to produce the raw materials, oil and agriculture needed to sustain a larger Japanese population. Therefore, the Japanese argued that they were entitled to grow and expand to nearby territories to provide for their nation’s needs. When the league of nations rejected the Japanese position, Japan walked out of the League of Nations. Japan would occupy part of China and Korea all leading to WWII.

Chang Tso-lin

Generalissimo of the Forces for the Suppression of Communism

He was a virulent anti communist and an opponent and foe of Chiang Kai-shek who he regarded as too moderate.

Henry L. Stimson

…the situation is in the hands of virtually mad dogs.

Mutsuhito Meiji

The integrity of Korea is a matter of gravest concern to this Empire.... the separate existence of Korea is essential to the safety of our realm ... the absorption of Manchuria by Russia would render it impossible to maintain the integrity of China, and would, in addition, compel the abandonment of all hope for peace in the Extreme East .

Meiji the Great

Nairalt Tov Khaan

The seditious rebels claim that we are the rulers of Manchuria and only later penetrated central China to become its rulers. Their prejudices concerning the division of their and our country have caused many vitriolic falsehoods. What these rebels have not understood is the fact that Manchuria is for the Manchus the same as the ancestral home is for the people of the central plain. Shun belonged to the Eastern Yi, and King Wen to the Western Yi. Does this fact diminish their virtues?

J. O. P. Bland

Here you have in a nutshell the explanation, if not the justification, of all Japan's diplomatic and economic activities in the Far East; …. of her claims to "special interests" in the undeveloped regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and possibly Siberia. Japan, to put it plainly, is overcrowded and must overflow, just as Great Britain and other congested countries of Europe have overflowed, but there is no New World open to her surplus millions. Her expansion must proceed along the line of least resistance, that is to say, into China's loosely held and thinly populated dependencies of the Asiatic continent. Manchuria and Mongolia are thus inevitably destined to follow Korea

Essentially this writer and intelligence operative had discerned the Japanese reason for its expansionism and wrote about it as early as 1921. The issue really became contentious and culminated in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearly Harbor in WWII, when the U. S. would not let them take over the other countries in Asia. When Bland wrote this, Japan had already annexed Korea. See {613106}. After Japan’s defeat in WWII the solved their problem very easily. They practiced birth control and in the early 21st century Japan had a negative population growth.

Manchuria Quotes