Kwantung (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

The Kwantung Leased Territory was a territory in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula in southern Manchuria that existed from 1898 to 1946. It was one of the numerous territorial concessions that the Empire of China was compelled to award to foreign countries at the end of the 19th century. The territory included the militarily and economically significant ports of Lüshunkou (Port Arthur, or Ryojun) and Dalian (or Dairen).

The name Kwantung, or Guāndōng (關東) in pinyin, means "east of Shanhai Pass", a reference to part of Qinhuangdao in today's Hebei province, at the eastern end of the Great Wall of China. The name originally referred to all of Manchuria but later came to be used more narrowly for the area of the leased territory.

History
In Qing dynasty China, the Liaodong Peninsula was administratively part of Liaoning Province. In 1882, the Beiyang Fleet established a naval base and coaling station at Lüshunkou near the southern end of the peninsula.

The Empire of Japan occupied the region during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), and under the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed by Japan and China ending the war in April 1895, Japan gained full sovereignty of the area. However, within weeks, Germany, France and Russia pressured Japan to cede the territory back to China, in what was called the Triple Intervention.

In December 1897, Russian naval vessels entered Lüshunkou harbor, which they began to use as a forward base of operations for patrols off of northern China, Korea and in the Sea of Japan. The Russian Empire renamed the harbor Port Arthur. In March 1898 Russia formally leased the region for 25 years from China. The leased area extended to the northern shore of Yadang Bay on the western side of the peninsula; on the eastern side it reached Pikou; Yevgeni Ivanovich Alekseyev, chief of Russian Pacific Fleet, became the head of this territory. The peninsula north of the lease was made a neutral territory in which China agreed not to offer concessions to other countries. In 1899, Russia founded the town of Dal'niy (meaning "distant" or "remote"), just north of the naval base at Port Arthur. This would later become the city of Dalian (Dairen in Japanese).

In 1898 Russia began building a railroad north from Port Arthur to link Dal'niy with the Chinese Eastern Railway at Harbin; this spur line was the South Manchurian Railway.

Under the Portsmouth Treaty (1905) resulting from the Russo-Japanese War, Japan replaced Russia as leaseholder. Port Arthur was renamed Ryojun, and Dal'niy was renamed Dairen in Japanese. Japan also obtained extraterritorial rights in the region north of the territory adjacent to the 885 kilometres (550 mi) South Manchurian Railway in 1905 (i.e. the South Manchurian Railway Zone), which was extended north of Mukden to Changchun. These rights, along with the railway and several spur lines were passed to the corporation known as the South Manchurian Railway Company.

Japan established the Kwantung Governor-general (関東都督府 Kantō Totokufu) to administer the new territory, and based the Kwantung Garrison to defend it and the railway. The Kwantung Garrison later became the Kwantung Army, which played an instrumental role in the founding of Manchukuo. In negotiations with the Republic of China under the Twenty-One Demands, the terms of the lease of the Kwantung Leased Territory were extended to 99 years, or until 1997.

After the foundation of Dominion of Manchuria in 1932, China and new established Myomi Republic regarded the sovereignty of the leased territory as transferred from China to Manchuria. A new lease agreement was contracted between Japan and the government of Manchuria, and Japan transferred the South Manchurian Railway Zone to Manchuria. However, Japan retained the Kwantung Leased Territory as a territory apart from the dominion until the end of World War II in 1945.

When Fascist regime ruled in Japan in 1942-1945, Kwantung became the military station for the Fascist Army to invaded China. After the World War II, the Manchurian units of Anti-Fascist People Liberation Forces and United States military occupied the territory. Japan ceremonially turn Kwantung over to Manchuria in 1948.