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Micronesia
Under the stipulations of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, Japan entered World War I on the side of the Allies in August 1914. During the war, Japan occupied German-leased territories in China and German-owned islands in the Pacific including the Marshalls, Marianas, and Carolines. The Treaty of Versailles awarded the occupied Pacific islands to Japan under a League of Nations mandate.
The prime value of the islands was initially perceived as strategic. Economic justification for the acquisition soon followed, and the islands were intensively developed. By the 1930s, all economic activity in Micronesia was controlled by three quasi-governmental Japanese companies. The development brought a higher standard of living for most island communities, but their share of the profits was very low, and their traditional society was greatly damaged by the establishment of Japanese plantations and towns.
Micronesia differed from most other colonies in terms of demographics. After 1935, Japanese residents outnumbered Micronesian residents, and the Marianas came to be inhabited almost entirely by Japanese. The official Japanese policy was to assimilate the Micronesians, but in actuality the government was essentially indifferent to them. Indigenous peoples experienced almost no assimilation policies at the hands of the Japanese.
Manchuria
Japan's 1905 victory over Russia won for Japan all interests previously controlled by Russia in southern Manchuria. These included the Liaodong leasehold, which Japan renamed the Kwantung Leased Territory. Japan also won control of the Russian-built railway line from Dalian to Changchun, along with special economic and administrative rights in towns situated along the line. To manage the railway and the other assets that came with it, the Japanese government in 1906 authorized the creation of the South Manchurian Railway Company (SMR). The railroad company served as the spearhead of Japanese economic and cultural activities in northeast China, and it accumulated substantial profits for much of its history. The Japanese army stationed troops, named the Kwantung Army (Jp. Kantōgun), in the leased territory and along the SMR rail line.
On the evening of September 18, 1931, elements of the Kwantung Army manufactured a clash with Chinese troops which led to the Army invading and occupying the entire northeast China region. The incident's planners acted in order to create a base of military operations and a buffer zone against the Soviet Union, so as to protect existing Japanese economic interests from competition and to secure the region as a source of future raw materials and as a site for industrial development. After the incident, planners then fabricated an indigenous independence movement as a pretext for creating a nominally autonomous state. This new state, Manchukuo (Jp. Manshūkoku), was established on March 1, 1932, with the former Qing emperor Pu Yi as its puppet leader. The Japanese government allowed the Kwantung Army to control Manchukuo as a virtual colony until the war's end in 1945.
The Chinese government appealed to the League of Nations for redress, and the League agreed to establish a commission of inquiry. Following the investigation, the commission's report acknowledged that Japan had legitimate grievances against the Chinese government. However, the report condemned the Japanese invasion and refused to recognize Manchukuo as an independent state. When the League adopted the report, Japan withdrew from the League.
By creating a puppet state, the Kwantung Army opened a new chapter in Japan's colonial history.
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