Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 609, The Final Frontier, Part 5.

On September 18, 1931, a bomb went off just outside Mukden at 10.20 p.m. local time.

That city, which is now called Shenyang, because Mukden is the Manchu language name,

was a major rail hub for Montetsu,

the South Manchuria Railway Company, and the bomb was set off near a section of track just outside the city by Liotel Lake.

The section was rather unremarkable other than its proximity to Mukden, and because it was only a bit under a kilometer from one of the garrisons of Manchuria's ruling warlord, Zhang Shui Liang. The damage was

also pretty minimal. A southbound train coming from Chongshun was actually able to continue along

the damage track and arrive in Mukden 10 minutes after the bomb went off,

pretty much on schedule.

The commanders of the local Japanese armed forces, called the Guangdong army, and stationed

in the nearby Guangdong-leased territory, immediately accused Zhang Shui Liang's forces of attacking

Japanese property and leapt to its defense.

In reality, of course, Zhang Shui Liang had nothing to do with the bombing, and yet the

whole thing became an excuse for a Japanese invasion that would, at long last, seize control of

Manchuria.

The so-called Mukden incident was, of course, a classic false flag attack. The bomb was not

set by Zhang Shui Liang's forces, but by officers of the Guangdong army, who were convinced

the only way to maintain Japan's current position in Manchuria was by forcibly replacing

the existing government.

Last week, we covered the reasons why those in this camp, who tended to be particularly

prominent among the leadership of the Guangdong army, but who also had friends and sympathizers

in the civilian world felt this way. But that doesn't explain why they felt correctly, as it

...