SDHF Newsletter No.429 The Road to the Greater East Asian War No. 40 Ch.10-6

THE ROAD TO THE GREATER EAST ASIAN WAR
Nakamura Akira, Dokkyo University Professor Emeritus
(English Translation: Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact)
Part 40, Chapter 10: The Manchurian Incident-6

August 1, 2025

Was Manchuria ever Chinese territory? Any consideration of the thorny Manchurian problem inevitably takes us back to this simple question. If Manchuria did not “belong” to China, then characterizations of the Manchurian Incident and the establishment of Manchuquo as acts of Japanese aggression become baseless, and thus moot.

Let’s look at 2,000 years of Manchurian history. The oldest Manchurian ethnic groups whose names appear in recorded history are the Sushen and the Yemack, both ethnically Tungusic. There was no Han presence in Manchuria in ancient times. Emperor Shi, the first ruler of the Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE), unified China, but never succeeded in gaining control of Manchuria and Mongolia. Instead, he had the Great Wall built and maintained to discourage incursions of Beidi (Northern barbarians). From this perspective alone, we can assume that Manchuria was not Han territory 2,000 years ago.

In 1115, Tungusic Balhae descendants established Jin dynasty, which moved into central China to create a vast domain extending from Manchuria and Mongolia in the north to Yellow River in the South. However, in the first half of 13th century, Mongols rose up on the banks of the Onon River and overthrew the Jurchen Jin dynasty. Soon Mongolians established the Yuan dynasty, brought down Song dynasty (the Han) and built an empire unprecedented in scale, encompassing Manchuria and all of China. In the latter half of the 14th century the fortunes of the Mongols were beginning to ebb. The Han drove them to the north again, and founded the Ming dynasty. Although the Ming expelled the Mongol forces from Manchuria, they never achieved complete control of the indigenous Manchus. The Ming authority was limited to a small part of area downstream along the Liao River. The Jurchen people, Manchus descended from Balhae and Jin, became firmly rooted in all of Manchuria. They never adopted the Han Ming calendar, and preserved their independent status in other ways as well. Toward the end of the 16th, Manchu Nurhaci raised an army, and in a little over 30 years, united Manchus and in 1636 established the Qing dynasty. In 1644 the Qing occupied Beijing, and set out to rule the Hans.

Having examined 2,000 years’ worth of Manchurian history, we now know that the Han never ruled the Manchus. The Manchus sometimes conquered China, but the Han never controlled Manchuria.

Sun Yat-sen did not believe the Manchuria was the Chinese territory. In August 1905, Chinese revolutionaries studying in Japan convened in Tokyo at a gathering called the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance. There the three revolutionary groups merged and selected Sun Yat-sen as their leader. The 8,000 attendees represented the 21 regions of China: 17 Chinese provinces, and Nanyang (Southeast Asia), Shanghai, Tianjin, and Hong Kong. Regional branch leaders were appointed, but not for Manchuria (the three eastern provinces: Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Mukden), as no branches had been established there, despite the fact that there were plenty of pure-blooded Manchus studying in Japan. Moreover, the slogan used for 1911 Revolution mieman xinghan (exterminate the Munchus and revive the Han) did not cover a scenario in which the Han possessed Manchuria.

Sun Yat-sen promised to cede Manchuria to Japan in exchange financial and weapon aids from Japan. There are many cases of this story. We can conclude that Manchuria has never been Chinese territory.
Unfortunately, this is no longer true.

URL: https://www.sdh-fact.com/book-article/2329/
PDF: https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/Road40E.pdf
　
Moteki Hiromichi, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact