Huanggutun incident
Huanggutun Railway Station | |
| Location | Shenyang, Republic of China |
|---|---|
| Cause | Bomb |
| Motive | The desire to install a pro-Japanese leader in Manchuria |
| Target | Zhang Zuolin |
| Organized by | Colonel Daisaku Kōmoto of the Kwantung Army |
| Participants | Captain Kaneo Tōmiya First Lieutenant Sadatoshi Fujii |
| Outcome | Death of Zhang Zuolin Failure to destabilize Northeast China |
| Casualties | |
| Zhang Zuolin | |
| Wu Junsheng | |
The Huanggutun incident (Chinese: 皇姑屯事件; pinyin: Huánggū Tún Shìjiàn), also known as the Zhang Zuolin Explosion Death Incident (Japanese: 張作霖爆殺事件, Hepburn: Chōsakurin bakusatsu jiken), was the assassination of the Fengtian warlord and Generalissimo of the Military Government of China Zhang Zuolin near Shenyang on 4 June 1928.
Zhang was killed when his personal train was destroyed by an explosion at the
Background
Following the
At the time of the
The
That change in policy came while Japan was in the midst of a severe economic crisis from the
The Nationalists, the
The Japanese thought that Manchuria falling under Soviet or Nationalist domination was strategically unacceptable, and Zhang Zuolin no longer appeared trustworthy as an ally capable of maintaining a de facto independent Manchuria. Japan needed a context to establish its effective control over Manchuria without combat or foreign intervention, and it believed splitting up the Fengtian clique by the replacement of Zhang with a more co-operative leader would do so.[3]
Events
Explosion
Zhang left Beijing to go to
Colonel Daisaku Kōmoto, a junior officer in the Kwantung Army, believed that the assassination of Zhang would be the most expeditious way of installing a new leader more amenable to Japanese demands and planned an operation without direct orders from Tokyo. Japanese China expert
Aftermath
At the time of the assassination, the Kwantung Army was already in the process of grooming
Consequences
The younger Zhang, to avoid any conflict with Japan and chaos that might provoke the Japanese into a military response, did not directly accuse Japan of complicity in his father's murder but instead quietly carried out a policy of reconciliation with the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, which left him as the recognized ruler of Manchuria instead of Yang Yuting. The assassination thus considerably weakened Japan's political position in Manchuria.[6][7]
Furthermore, the assassination, which was conducted by low-ranking officers, did not have the prior consent of the
To achieve its goals in Manchuria, the Kwantung Army was forced to wait several years before
See also
- Warlord era
- Events preceding World War II in Asia
- Jinan incident (May 1928)
- Zhang Xueliangon 29 December 1928)
- Japanese invasion of Manchuria
- Mukden Incident(18 September 1931)
References
Citations
- ^ Jiang 1998, p. 19.
- ISBN 0-19-822168-1.
- ^ Gordon 2003, p. 187.
- ^ Tobe 2016, Chō Sakurin bakusatsu o kensaku?.
- ^ Beasley, p. 187
- ISBN 0-393-30780-8.
- ^ Beasley, p. 188
- ^ Bix, Herbert P. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. p. 216-218.
Zhang was de jure head of state because he held the absolute power over the internationally-recognized Beiyang government, based in Beijing.
Sources
- Books
- ISBN 0-19-822168-1.
- ISBN 0-19-511061-7.
- Jiang, Arnold Xiangze (1998). The United States and China. The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-39947-8.
- ISBN 0-393-30780-8.
- Tobe, Ryōichi (2016). Nihon rikugun to chūgoku: shinatsū ni miru yume to satetsu [The Japanese Army and China: The Dreams and Setbacks of its "China Experts"] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō. ISBN 978-4-480-09740-8.
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