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Manchukuo was a puppet state set up by the Empire of Japan in Manchuria which existed from 1931 to 1945. The Manchukuo regime was established four months after the Japanese withdrawal from Shanghai with Puyi as the nominal but powerless head of state^[1] to add some semblance of legitimacy, as he was a former emperor and an ethnic Manchu.

Government

Manchukuo was proclaimed a monarchy on 1 March 1934, with former Qing dynasty emperor Puyi assuming the Manchukuo throne under the reign name of Emperor Kang-de. An imperial rescript issued the same day, promulgated the organic law of the new state, establishing a Privy Council, a Legislative Council and the General Affairs State Council to "advise and assist the emperor in the discharge of his duties". The Privy Council was an appointive body consisting of Puyi's closest friends and confidants, and the Legislative Council was largely an honorary body without authority. The State Council was therefore the center of political power in Manchukuo. The organic law was largely an abridged version of the Imperial Japanese Constitution, with an important difference being the lack of any mention of civil rights and the increased authority of the Privy Council. As with all other aspects of Manchukuo, the government was purely ceremonial and existed to authenticate the puppet state rather than to rule the people of Manchukuo. True authority remained in the hands of the Kwantung Army.

Composition


Portfolio	Minister	Took office	Left office
Prime Minister	Zheng Xiaoxu	9 March 1932	21 May 1935
Prime Minister	Zhang Jinghui	21 May 1935	18 August 1945
Minister of Foreign Affairs	Xie Jieshi	1932	1935
	Zhang Yanqing	1935	May 1937
	Zhang Jinghui	May 1937	July 1937
	Shoichi Kanki [ja]	July 1937	April 1938
	Ts'ai Yün-sheng [ja]	April 1938	May 1940
	Wei Huan-chang [ja]	May 1940	September 1942
	Li Shaogeng	September 1942	April 1944
	Ruan Zhenduo	April 1944	18 August 1945
Minister of Defense	Ma Zhanshan	9 March 1932	7 April 1932
	Zhang Jinghui	7 April 1932	20 May 1935
	Yu Zhishan	21 May 1935	24 April 1939
	Yu Yucheng [ja]	24 April 1939	September 1942
	Xing Shilian [ja]	September 1942	18 August 1945
Minister of the Interior	Xi Qia	21 May 1935	18 August 1945
Minister of Finance	Xi Qia	9 March 1932	21 May 1935
	Sun Qichang	21 May 1935	September 1942
	Han Yün-chie [ja]	May 1937	May 1940
	Ts'ai Yün-sheng [ja]	May 1940	September 1942
	Ruan Zhenduo	September 1942	April 1944
	Yü Ching-yüan [ja]	December 1944	18 August 1945
Minister of Economic Affairs	Zhang Yanqing	March 1932	May 1935
	Ding Jianxiu	May 1935	May 1937
	Lü Ronghuan	May 1937	May 1940
	Yü Ching-yüan [ja]	May 1940	September 1942
	Huang Fu-qün [ja]	September 1942	18 August 1945
Minister of Transport	Ding Jianxiu	March 1932	March 1935
	Li Shaogeng	March 1935	December 1940
	Ruan Zhenduo	December 1940	September 1942
	Ku Tz'u-heng [ja]	January 1941	September 1942
Minister of Health	Zang Shiyi	March 1932	March 1935
	Lü Ronghuan	March 1935	May 1937
	Sun Qichang	May 1937	May 1940
	Lü Ronghuan	May 1940	January 1941
	Ku Tz'u-heng [ja]	January 1941	September 1942
	Yü Ching-yüan [ja]	September 1942	December 1944
	Chin Ming-shih [ja]	April 1944	18 August 1945
Minister of Education	Ruan Zhenduo	May 1935	July 1937
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal	Ko Tzung-hsi [ja]	March 1934	December 1934
	Yuan Jinkai	February 1935	April 1944
	Chi-hsing [ja]	April 1944	18 August 1945

Political parties and movements

During his administration, the Kangde Emperor, in an interview with foreign journalists, mentioned his interest in forming a political party with Confucian doctrines. The Japanese "native" establishment, however, organized some right-wing and nationalist parties, in the Shōwa militarist mould. Such movements, which had official status, were:

Concordia Association (State-sponsored political party)
Northeast Administrative Committee (Manchukuo nationalist local party)
White Russian Fascist Party (later the Russian Fascist Party; White Russian anti-communist party in Manchukuo, used the swastika as the party symbol, and guided by a Russian fascist "Duce")
Bureau for Russian Emigrants in Manchuria (BREM) led by General Vladimir Kislitsin
Monarquic Party (White Russian Tsarist Monarchic party with Japanese approval)
Betarim Jew Zionist Movement (Jewish rights movement in Manchukuo)
Far Eastern Jewish Council (Jewish Zionist council in Harbin, Manchukuo led by Dr. Abraham Kaufman, with Japanese Army support)

Notable people

The Imperial Manchu Court

Aisin Gioro Henry Puyi (Kangde Emperor and head of state)
Madame Wanrong (Empress and first wife of the Kangde Emperor)
Prince Aisin Gioro Pujie (brother of Puyi, possible heir of Manchukuo Throne)
Prince Aisin Gioro Puren (brother of Puyi)
Prince Aisin Gioro Yuyan (nephew of Puyi)
Hiro Saga (Japanese sister-in-law of the Kangde Emperor)
Wenxiu (first concubine of the Emperor)
Tan Yuling (2nd Wife of the Kangde Emperor)
Li Yuqin (4th Wife of the Kangde Emperor)
Princess Aisin Gioro Huisheng (daughter of Pu-Chieh and Hiro Saga)
Princess Aisin Gioro Xianyu (distant relative)

Others (local)

Bao Guancheng, Manchukuo's first ambassador in Tokyo^[2]
Yuan Cheng-Tse, Manchukuo ambassador in Tokyo
Li Shao-Keng, Manchukuo ambassador in Tokyo
Gen. Tinge, Manchukuo diplomat in Tokyo
Lu Yiwen, Manchukuo ambassador in Berlin

Kwantung Army

Commanders

No.	Commander	Took office	Left office	Time in office
1	Honjō, ShigeruGeneral Shigeru Honjō (1876–1945)	1 August 1931	8 August 1932	1 year, 7 days
2	Mutō, NobuyoshiField Marshal Nobuyoshi Mutō (1868–1933)	8 August 1932	27 July 1933 †	353 days
3	Hishikari, TakashiGeneral Takashi Hishikari (1871–1952)	29 July 1933	10 December 1934	1 year, 134 days
4	Minami, JirōGeneral Jirō Minami (1874–1955)	10 December 1934	6 March 1936	1 year, 87 days
5	Ueda, KenkichiGeneral Kenkichi Ueda (1875–1962)	6 March 1936	7 September 1939	3 years, 185 days
6	Umezu, YoshijirōGeneral Yoshijirō Umezu (1882–1949)	7 September 1939	18 July 1944	4 years, 315 days
7	Yamada, OtozōGeneral Otozō Yamada (1881–1965)	18 July 1944	11 August 1945	1 year, 24 days

Chief of Staff

Koji Miyake (10 August 1928 – 8 August 1932)
Kuniaki Koiso (8 August 1932 – 5 March 1934)
Juzo Nishio (5 March 1934 – 23 March 1936)
Seishirō Itagaki (23 March 1936 – 1 March 1937)
Hideki Tōjō (1 March 1937 – 30 May 1938)
Rensuke Isogai (18 June 1938 – 7 September 1939)
Jo Iimura (7 September 1939 – 22 October 1940)
Heitarō Kimura (22 October 1940 – 10 April 1941)
Teiichi Yoshimoto (10 April 1941 – 1 August 1942)
Yukio Kasahara (1 August 1942 – 7 April 1945)
Hikosaburo Hata (7 April 1945 – 11 August 1945)

Others (Japanese)

Nobusuke Kishi, Deputy Minister of Industrial Development, architect of the exploitative slave economy in Manchukuo, war criminal and later post-war Prime Minister of Japan
Chu Kudo, Chamberlain, aide-de-camp to Emperor Puyi
Yoshioka Yasunori Army senior staff officer and Attaché to the Imperial Household in Manchukuo
Kenjiro Hayashide official Kangde emperor biographer and author of "Epochal Journey to Japan"
Chiune Sugihara, Vice Foreign Minister
Hoshino Naoki, Vice Minister of Finance
Kenji Doihara, Japanese spymaster and military commander
Norihiro Yasue, Army officer, author of the Fugu Plan
Koreshige Inuzuka, Navy officer, co-author of the Fugu Plan
Masahiko Amakasu, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs and head of Manchukuo Film Association
Yoshisuke Aikawa, prominent industrialist
Tatsunosuke Takasaki, prominent businessman
Toranosuke Hashimoto, State Shinto head priest
Yanagida Genzo Commander, Kwantung Defense Command
Takashi Hishikari Kwantung Army ambassador to Manchukuo.
Kimio Miyagawa Japanese Consul-general in Harbin
Funao Miyakawa Japanese General Counselor in Vladivostok and then in Harbin
Prince Fumitaka Konoe Army Senior Lieutenant, son and personal secretary of Prince Fumimaro Konoe
Shun Akifusa Chief of military Mission in Harbin and political adviser to the white Russian political groups in same city
Genzo Yanagita head of the Japanese military mission in Harbin
Kenji Ishikawa head of a sabotage group of that mission
Yutaka Takeoka intelligence officer and head of the Dairen military mission
Saburo Asada head of the 2nd (Intelligence) department of the staff of the Kwantung Army
Tamaki Kumazaki deputy chief of intelligence of Kwantung Army
Hiroki Nohara deputy chief of Kwantung Army Intelligence
Yoshio Itagaki deputy chief of Kwantung Army Intelligence and son of Seishiro Itagaki, war minister from 1938–1939

Others

Genrikh Lyushkov, ex-Soviet Far East NKVD defector, adviser to Kwantung Army
Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky, White Russian anticommunist leader
General Kislitsin, another White Russian anticommunist chief
Abraham Kaufman, founder of Far Eastern Jewish Council and Betarim Jew Zionists Movement
Trebitsch Lincoln, Hungarian pro-Japanese collaborator
August Ponschab, German consul in Harbin, Manchuria
Auguste Ernest Pierre Gaspais, Vatican representative in Harbin, Manchuria
Charles Lemaire, Vatican diplomatic officer in Harbin, Manchuria
Lian Yu, ambassador from the Japanese-sponsored Nanjing Nationalist Government
Mariano Amoedo Galarmendi, Spanish chargé d'affaires to 1939
Fernando Valdés Ibargüen, Count of Torata, Spanish minister 1941 to 1942
José González de Gregorio y Arribas, Spanish chargé d'affaires 1942 to 1943, commercial attaché since 1940

References

^ Taylor, Anne; Hopper, Stephen (1988). The Banksia Atlas (Australian Flora and Fauna Series Number 8). Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. ISBN 0-644-07124-9.
^ "Another League", The Straits Times, p. 6, 11 October 1932, retrieved 20 October 2023