THE KWANTUNG ARMY

Evening Star, Issue 25565, 18 August 1945, Page 7

THE KWANTUNG ARMY

INDEPENDENCE OF TOKIO The Kwantung army, which has been figuring prominently in the fighting in Manchuria, has for long operated independently of the Japanese Government. During that fateful night of September 18, 1931, when Japanese troops started moving on the old Maiiehurian capital of Mukden, Japan herself, it has been stated, was unaware of the event. Neither the people nor the Government, nor even the military leaders in Tokio, appeared to know that their vanguard had begun to commit the country to a far-reaching venture. " It was only after the military leaders had tacitly followed the lead of the activists in Manchuria—associating their own vague plans, which were waiting for execution at some future date, with the actual operations that were already sweeping over that country—that the promising operations in Manchuria could be elaborated and made known to the public," writes Guenther Stein in his ' Far East in Forment.' Throughout the Sino-Japanese war which followed its movement into Mukden in 1931, the Kwantung army continued to display an indifference to the wishes of Tokio whenever it preferred its own course of action, and it now appears that this spirit of independence may be carried to the extent of resisting the Emperor's surrender order.