Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 65, An Unnatural Intimacy, Part 3.

Last week, we left off with the London Naval Conference. The 1930 conference was the last

time before World War II, when Japan really acted as a member in good standing of the

international system assembled by the United States

after World War I. We've talked quite a bit in previous episodes about what came next, but here's a

brief refresher. By 1931, more militantly minded members of the Japanese society and the military

were convinced that the American-dominated global order was doomed

to failure, and that Japanese attempts to go along with it were weakening the nation.

One of the most powerful bastions of this radicalism was the military force charged with

defending the northern border of Korea, the Qantong or Guangdong Army. The first from the older Wade-Giles system,

the second from the newer Pining system. The only correct way to pronounce the name is Guangdong,

but because most Americans don't know how Wade Giles is actually pronounced, quite if you say

Guangdong. I'm going to use Guangdong, because it's more correct,

and because I'm afraid some of my Chinese teachers will hear this

and send me angry emails.

Anyway, this force already had a tremendous amount of autonomy.

Members of its officer corps had been meddling in Chinese internal politics for years.

They had a very broadly defined responsibility to defend Japan's position in Korea and northeastern China,

one that they interpreted very liberally.

Taking advantage of this freedom, a group of officers led by Doihara Kenji,

the opium-addicted general I mentioned in the episodes

on the rise of the Imperial Army, and another officer named Ishihara Kanji, a staff officer in the

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