Mukden incident

Mukden incident
Mukden incident
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	九一八事變
Simplified Chinese	九一八事变
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Jiǔyībā Shìbiàn
Alternative name
Traditional Chinese	瀋陽事變
Simplified Chinese	沈阳事变
Transcriptions
Transcriptions
Japanese name
Kanji	満州事変
Kana	まんしゅうじへん
Romanization
Transcriptions
Romanization	Manshū Jihen

Mukden incident
	Part of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
	; Japanese troops entering Shenyang during the Mukden incident
Date	September 18, 1931
Location	Manchuria, China41°50′05″N 123°27′58″E / 41.834610°N 123.465984°E
Result	Japanese victory Japanese invasion of Manchuria;
Belligerents
China	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Zhang Xueliang; Ma Zhanshan; Feng Zhanhai;	Shigeru Honjō; Jirō Minami; Kanji Ishiwara; Seishirō Itagaki;
Strength
160,000	30,000–66,000
Casualties and losses
Western Claim : 340+ killed; ; Chinese Claim:; 5 officers and 144 soldiers killed; 14 officers and 172 soldiers wounded; 483 soldiers missing; ; Japanese Claim: 320 killed	Western Claim : 25 killed; ; Japanese Claim: 2 killed, 22 wounded

The Mukden incident was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

On September 18, 1931, Lieutenant Suemori Kawamoto of the Independent Garrison Unit of the 29th Japanese Infantry Regiment detonated a small quantity of dynamite close to a railway line owned by Japan's South Manchuria Railway near Mukden (now Shenyang). The explosion was so weak that it failed to destroy the track, and a train passed over it minutes later. The Imperial Japanese Army accused Chinese dissidents of the act and responded with a full invasion that led to the occupation of Manchuria, in which Japan established its puppet state of Manchukuo five months later. The deception was exposed by the Lytton Report of 1932, leading Japan to diplomatic isolation and its March 1933 withdrawal from the League of Nations.