Empire of Japan

===== Manchuria =====
{{Main|Mukden Incident|Japanese invasion of Manchuria|Pacification of Manchukuo}}
[[File:Mukden 1931 japan shenyang.jpg|thumb|Japanese troops entering [[Shenyang]], [[Northeast China]] during the [[Mukden Incident]], 1931]]

In 1931, Japan invaded and conquered Northeast China (Manchuria) with little resistance. Japan claimed that this invasion was a liberation of the local [[Manchu]]s from the Chinese, although the majority of the population were [[Han Chinese]] as a result of the [[Chuang Guandong|large scale settlement of Chinese in Manchuria]] in the 19th century. Japan then established a puppet state called [[Manchukuo]] ({{zh|t=滿洲國}}), and installed the last [[List of emperors of the Qing dynasty|Manchu Emperor of China]], [[Puyi]], as the official [[head of state]]. [[Rehe Province|Rehe]], a Chinese territory bordering Manchukuo, was later also taken in 1933. This puppet regime had to carry on a protracted pacification campaign against the [[Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies]] in Manchuria. In 1936, Japan created a similar Mongolian puppet state in Inner Mongolia named [[Mengjiang]] ({{zh|t=蒙疆}}), which was also predominantly Chinese as a result of recent Han immigration to the area. At that time, East Asians were banned from immigration to [[Immigration Act of 1924|North America]] and [[White Australia policy|Australia]], but the newly established Manchukuo was open to immigration of Asians. Japan had an emigration plan to encourage colonization; the Japanese population in Manchuria subsequently grew to 850,000.<ref>Kevin McDowell. Japan in Manchuria: Agricultural Emigration in the Japanese Empire, 1932–1945. University of Arizona</ref> With rich natural resources and labor force in Manchuria, army-owned corporations turned Manchuria into a solid material support machine of the Japanese Army.<ref name="The Economist">{{cite news |title=The Unquiet Past Seven decades on from the defeat of Japan, memories of war still divide East Asia |newspaper=The Economist |date=August 12, 2015 |url=https://www.economist.com/news/essays/en/asia-second-world-war-ghosts |access-date=November 26, 2016}}</ref>