State of Manchuria (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

The Dominion of Manchuria (traditional Chinese: 滿洲自治領, lit. Manchu Dominion) was a designation of Manchuria from 1932 to 1948 when the country was an associated state of Japan. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China. In 1931, the region was transferred to Japan by Republic of China following the end of Sino-Japanese War and in 1932, a dominion government was established. In 1948, the Dominion ended and Manchuria was proclaimed as an independent republic.

Manchus formed a minority in Manchuria, whose largest ethnic group were Han Chinese. There were also Koreans, Japanese, Mongols, White Russians and less numerous minorities.The southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula was ruled by Japan as the Kwantung Leased Territory.

History
As a direct result of the Russo-Japanese War (1904/05) Japanese influence replaced Russia's in Inner Manchuria. In 1906, Japan laid the South Manchurian Railway to Port Arthur (Japanese: Ryojun). Between World War I and World War II Manchuria became a political and military battleground between Russia, Japan, and China. Japan moved into Outer Manchuria as a result of the chaos following the Russian Revolution of 1917. A combination of Soviet military successes and American economic pressure forced the Japanese to withdraw from the area, however, and Outer Manchuria returned to Soviet control by 1925.

During the warlord period in China, the warlord Zhang Zuolin established himself in Inner Manchuria with Japanese backing. Later, the Japanese Kwantung Army found him too independent, so he was assassinated in 1928.

The regime in Japan changed from Empire to Republic in. With the advices from left-wing member of the State Council and Legislative Council, President Nagayama Yoshida decided to talk with the Government of Republic of China in Nanjing in the issue of Manchuria and the armament for Sino-Japanese war in 6 March 1931. Former Imperial Prime Minister, Shidehara Kijuro sent as Japanese delegation to Nanjing for negotiates with Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China government over the issues in 5 April 1931. Both of parties agreed to ceasefire the conflict and signed the Nanjing Peace Treaty in 26 April 1931.

The China Government also recognized the new Japanese Republican government and agreed to transferred northern part of Manchuria into Japan to become the buffer territory between anti-communist Kuomintang China and communist Soviet Union. The territories annexed by Japan included Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Xing'an, Hejiang, Songjiang, Andong, Liaobei, and Nenjiang. For handle administration affairs of those territories, Japan formed the Harbin Commitee chaired by Jiang Yue-xin. The commitee initially only handled the migration of thousand Han peoples from the Japan-controlled Manchurian provinces to the Republic of China territory, but later grow in power as the executive board and the quasi-legislature for Japanese Manchuria.

Manchuria later guaranteed the dominion status by the Republican government modeled the British dominion system as the Dominion of Manchuria with Harbin as the capital of new entity. Jiang Yuexin elected as the first head of state and Hu Jiaoyi as the first prime minister on 18 January 1932. Japan recognized the Dominion of Manchukuo with Protocol of Dalian in 25 February 1932.

In this manner, Japan formally detached Manchuria from China in the course of the 1930s. With Japanese investment and rich natural resources, the area became an industrial powerhouse.

In 1935, the dominion government bought the Chinese Eastern Railway from the Soviet Union.

In the summer of 1939 a border dispute between Manchuria and the Mongolian People's Republic resulted in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. During this battle, a combined Soviet-Mongolian force defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army (Kantogun) supported by the Manchurian forces.

By the end of World War II, the Soviet troops occupied the western part of the country and the United States in the eastern.

From 1945 to 1948, Western Manchuria served as a base area for the People's Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang (KMT). With Soviet encouragement, the Chinese Communists used Manchuria as a staging ground until the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. In early 1949, Dominion of Manchukuo handled back from the U.S and Soviet administration to Japanese government. The independence of Manchuria was proclaimed on 18 February 1950, and renamed to State of Manchuria.