The Flying Tigers
The Roaring ’20s in the United States gave us jazz, speakeasies, flappers, Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, the Model A, Red Grange, radio broadcasting, Gertrude Ederle swimming the English Channel, and Lucky Lindy soloing the Atlantic. The same decade in Japan saw the rise of militarists and the formulation of a plot by Japanese generals to topple the civilian government. Useful to the militarists was the Kwantung army, Japan’s army of occupation in southern Manchuria. The army precipitated several incidents in Manchuria in hopes of forcing the Japanese government’s hand. One of the incidents finally bore fruit.
Militarists and Murderous Occupation
On September 18, 1931, the Kwantung army claimed that Chinese soldiers had tried to bomb a South Manchurian Railway train. Using what became known as the Manchurian incident as an excuse, the Kwantung army moved swiftly to capture the city of Mukden, followed by the occupation of all of Manchuria. By 1932, Japan had turned Manchuria into the puppet state of Manchukuo. A Chinese figurehead was made emperor of Manchukuo, but all key positions in the government were held by Japanese, and behind these civilians was the Kwantung army.
The few civilian leaders in the Tokyo government who tried to curb the army could count on being assassinated. This included Japanese prime ministers, two of whom fell to assassins.
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