Editing Manchukuo (section)

=== Transportation ===
{{Main|South Manchuria Railway}}
[[File:Manchukuo Railmap en.png|thumb|Manchukuoan railways in 1945]]
When Manchukuo was founded as a Japanese puppet state, it inherited the railroad network of Manchuria that was built originally during an economic and military struggle between Russia and Japan over Chinese territory and became a focal point before and after the [[Russo-Japanese War]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Davis |first=Malcolm W. |date=1926 |title=Railway Strategy in Manchuria |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=499–502 |doi=10.2307/20028472 |jstor=20028472 |issn=0015-7120 |jstor-access=free |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Southern Manchuria Railway (1906-1945)  |url=https://worldhistorycommons.org/southern-manchuria-railway-1906-1945 |access-date=2023-03-13 |website=World History Commons }}</ref> Chinese warlords had also aimed to build local lines when possible.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Penwell |first=Cameron |date=2019-02-19 |title=South Manchurian Railway Company Publications in the Japanese Collection {{!}} 4 Corners of the World |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2019/02/south-manchurian-railway-company-publications-in-the-japanese-collection/ |access-date=2023-03-13 |website=The Library of Congress}}</ref> Manchukuo's railroad system would consist mainly of the [[South Manchuria Railway]], a Japanese concession in the Republic of China, and the [[Chinese Eastern Railway]], a Russian concession which was still owned by the Soviet Union inside Manchukuo.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Kantorovich |first=A. J. |date=1935 |title=The Sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2751239 |journal=Pacific Affairs |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=397–408 |doi=10.2307/2751239 |issn=0030-851X |jstor=2751239}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=Chinese Eastern Railway railway, China |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chinese-Eastern-Railway |access-date=2016-12-11 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref> The Soviet Union sold the Chinese Eastern Railway to Japanese Manchukuo in 1935, giving Japan and Manchukuo full control over the railroads of Manchuria.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1935, The Far East, Volume III - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1935v03/d92 |access-date=2023-03-13 |website=history.state.gov}}</ref>

The Japanese built an efficient railway system that still functions well today. Known as the South Manchuria Railway or ''Mantetsu'', this large corporation came to own large stakes in many industrial projects throughout the region. Mantetsu personnel were involved in the economic exploitation of occupied China during World War II,<ref name=":0" /> and colonial planning at the behest of the Imperial Japanese Army.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Iriye |first=Akira |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D8j_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA237 |title=The Chinese and the Japanese: Essays in Political and Cultural Interactions |date=2014-07-14 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5550-6 |pages=237 |language=en}}</ref> Many railway lines in Manchukuo were owned by the [[Manchukuo National Railway]]. After 1933, the Manchukuo National Railway was fully owned by the South Manchuria Railway/Mantetsu. Mantetsu had close to monopoly status and its properties were guarded by the [[Kwantung Army]].<ref name=":0" />

By the end of World War II, the South Manchuria Railway owned 70 companies and employed about 340,000 people in Manchukuo and occupied China.<ref name=":0" />