In 1931 the Manchuria region was seized by the Japanese military, and in 1932 a pro-Japanese government was established, Manchukuo. The commander of the Northeast Army, Zhang Xueliang, led his troops south in retreat to within the Great Wall. However, there still many divisions left in Manchuria, and the Japanese Kwantung Army faced the problem of how to deal with them, as well as other ethnic groups and bandits. They created the Manchukuo Army, which included more than one hundred thousand service men by 1933. It played a key role in the 1939 Nomonhan battle against the Soviets. It was dominated by the Japanese at every level. In this paper, I am focusing on the collaboration and resistance dynamics among the Han Chinese, Manchus, Koreans, and Mongolians in the Manchukuo military forces.

As a relatively new Chinese territory, nationalism had not deeply penetrated Manchuria society. Thus, Manchukuo is a unique and typical instance as a puppet regime in the East Asia. I examine the bucking ethnic policy trends of the Japanese, motives of the Chinese collaborators, examining their fluctuating stands, in order to discover their authentic attitude towards the invasion. Japan also promoted the idea of an ideal multi-ethnic state in Manchuria, in the Manchukuo Army, not only Chinese but also Mongolians and Koreans played key roles. I will examine the dynamics at play in multi-ethnic state.