After this affair, things quieted down a little at home. But the
extremists had meanwhile had their way in the sphere of foreign policy.
Japanese troops had spread over most of Manchuria. In February the
Japanese attack on Shanghai had occurred. In March the “independent”
state of Manchoukuo was established. Far from being independent, it was
really the plaything of Japan’s army extremists who had planned the
“Mukden incident.”
Another year passed before the Manchurian issues were fully ironed
out. In September 1932 the Japanese government formally recognized
Manchoukuo. Early in 1933, on basis of the Lytton Report, the League
of Nations passed judgment on Japan. The army at once moved again in
Manchuria. In March 1933 Japanese troops occupied Jehol province, and
added it to Manchoukuo. In May these troops advanced to the gates of
Peiping and Tientsin, and enforced “demilitarization” of the region
immediately south of the Great Wall of China. Meanwhile, Japan had
withdrawn from the League of Nations. For the time, her conquest of
Manchuria had been made good in her own eyes, if not in the eyes of the
world.