Diemazz

Express train on South Manchuria Railway

Locomotive for Asia Express

Advertisement in 1937

SMR HQ in Dalian

Dining car of South Manchuria Railway

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 within China in the Japanese-controlled South Manchuria Railway Zone. The railway itself ran from Lüshun Port at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula to Harbin, where it connected to the Chinese Eastern Railway.

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. ^[3] During the 1920s, Mantetsu provided for over a quarter of the Japanese government's tax revenues. ^[5]

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. ^[5]

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. ^[6] 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. ^[7]

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.

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.

Presidents

References

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

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

See also

• Kwantung Leased Territory
• South Manchuria Railway Zone

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: South Manchuria Railway

• WorldStatesmen- China- foreign colonies

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