South Manchuria Railway

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The South Manchuria Railway Company (南満州鉄道株式会社, Minami Manshū Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha, or 満鉄 Mantetsu^?) was a company founded in the Empire of Japan in 1906, after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), and operated in Japanese-occupied Manchuria.

Contents 1 History 2 Presidents 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] History

Following the Japanese victory over Imperial Russia and the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, the South Manchuria branch (from Changchun to Lüshun) of the China Far East Railway was transferred to Japanese control. A new, semi-privately-held company was established with a capitalization of 200 million yen to operate the railroad and to develop settlements and industries along its route. ^[1] The organizing committee was headed by General Kodama Gentarō, and after his death, by General Terauchi Masatake. Count Gotō Shimpei, formerly Japanese governor of Taiwan, was appointed the first president, and the headquarters of the company was established in Dairen.By the end of 1907, the company employed 9000 Japanese and 4000 Chinese. By 1910, those numbers had increased to 35,000 and 25,000 respectively. ^[2] Until 1925, the company also operated the Korean railway system.

Mantetsu quickly expanded the system inherited from Russia to staggering proportions, building coal mines at Fushun and Yantai, and harbor facilities at Andong, Yingkou, and Dalian. At each station, Mantetsu built hotels for travelers and warehouses for goods. Japanese settlers were encouraged through the construction of schools, libraries, hospitals and public utilities. The Mantetsu Research Wing was the centerpiece of Japan's colonial program, and instigated agricultural research into development of soybean farming. Land under cultivation expanded 70% in 20 years. ^[3]

From 1916, Mantestu began to spin off a number of subsidiary companies, including Showa Steel Works, Dalian Ceramics, Dalian Oil & Fat, South Manchurian Glass, as well as flour mills, sugar mills, electrical power plants, shale oil plants and chemical plants. ^[4]

Company assets rose from 163 million yen in 1908 to over a billion yen in 1930. Mantetsu was by far the largest corporation in Japan, and also its most profitable, averaging rates of return from 25-45 percent per year. ^[5] During the 1920s, Mantetsu provided for over a quarter of the Japanese government's tax revenues. ^[6]

Over 75% of Mantetsu's income was generated by its freight business, with the key to profitability coming from soybean exports, both to Japan proper and to Europe. Soybean production increased exponentially with increasing demand for soy oil, and for soy meal for use in fertilizer and animal feed. By 1927, half of the world's supply of soybean was from Manchuria and the efforts by Mantetsu to expand production and to ship to export ports was a classic example of an extractive colonial economy dependent on a single product. ^[7]

The South Manchuria Railway was also charged with a government-like role in managing the rail transportation system after the formation of Manchukuo in 1932. By 1938, Mantetsu had 72 subsidiary companies, development projects in 25 urban areas and carried 17,515,000 passengers per year. ^[8] Between 1930-1940, the Japanese population of Manchukuo rose by 800,000 making ethnic Japanese the majority in many of the towns and cities served by Mantetsu. Mantetsu prided itself on state-of-the-art urban planning, with modern sewer systems, public parks, and creative modern architecture far in advance of what could be found in Japan itself. These things possible due to Mantetsu's tremendous profitability, and its political power to seize property and silence opposition and dissent at will through its political connections to the military and totalitarian national leadership. ^[9]

In 1934, Mantetsu inaugurated the “Asia Express”, a high speed train from Dalian to the Manchukuo capital of Hsinking. Reaching a top speed of 134 km/h (83 mph), the "Asia Express" was the fastest scheduled train in the world at the time.

During Operation August Storm, in 1945 the Soviet Union invaded and overran Manchukuo. Rolling stock and moveable equipment was looted, and taken back to the Soviet Union, some of which was returned when the Chinese Communist government came into power. Mantetsu itself was dissolved by order of the American occupation authorities in occupied Japan.

[edit] Presidents

	Name	From	To
1	Shinpei Goto	13 November 1906	14 July 1908
2	Korekimi Nakamura	19 December 1908	18 December 1913
3	Ryutaro Nomura	19 December 1913	15 July 1914
4	Yujiro Nakamura	15 July 1914	31 July 1917
5	Shimbei Kunisawa	31 July 1917	12 April 1919
6	Ryutaro Nomura	12 April 1919	31 May 1921
7	Senkichi Hayakawa	31 May 1921	14 October 1922
8	Takeji Kawamura	24 October 1922	22 June 1924
9	Banichiro Yasuhiro	22 June 1924	19 July 1927
10	Jōtaro Yamamoto	19 July 1927	14 August 1929
11	Mitsugu Sengoku	14 August 1928	13 June 1931
12	Yasuya Uchida	13 June 1931	6 July 1932
13	Hakutaro Hayashi	26 July 1932	2 Aug 1935
14	Yōsuke Matsuoka	2 Aug 1935	24 March 1939
15	Takuichi Ohmura	24 March 1939	14 July 1943
16	Naoto Kohiyama	14 July 1943	11 April 1945
17	Motoki Yamazaki	5 May 1945	30 September 1945

[edit] References

1. ^ Young, Japan's Total Empire, pp 25
2. ^ Coox, Nomonhan pp.6
3. ^ Coox, Nomonhan pp.21
4. ^ Young, Japan’s Total Empire, pp32
5. ^ Coox, Nomonhan pp.21
6. ^ Young, Japan's Total Empire, pp 31-32
7. ^ Young, Japan's Total Empire, pp 31-32
8. ^ Coox, Nomonhan, pp 1078
9. ^ Young, Japan’s Total Empire, pp.250

• Coox, Alvin (1990). Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939. Stanford University Press. 0804718350. 
• Young, Louise (1999). Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism. University of California Press. ISBN 0520219341. 

[edit] See also

• Kwantung Leased Territory
• South Manchuria Railway Zone

[edit] External links

• WorldStatesmen- China- foreign colonies