Editing Manchukuo (section)

===Qing decline and rising nationalism===
{{See also|History of the Republic of China|Japanese nationalism|Japanese militarism}}
As the power of the court in Beijing weakened, many of the empire's outlying areas either broke free (such as [[Kashgar]]) or fell under the control of the Western imperialist powers. The Russian Empire had set its sights on Qing's northern territories, and through [[unequal treaties]] signed in 1858 and 1860 ultimately [[Amur Annexation|annexed huge tracts of territory]] adjoining the [[Amur River]] outright, now known collectively as [[Outer Manchuria]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/analysis/29263.stm|title=Russia and China end 300-year-old border dispute|work=[[BBC News]]|date=10 November 1997|access-date=14 August 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111106025930/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/analysis/29263.stm|archive-date=6 November 2011}}</ref> As the Qing continued to weaken, Russia made further efforts to take control of the rest of Manchuria. By the 1890s, the region was under strong Russian influence, symbolized by the Russian-built [[Chinese Eastern Railway]] that ran from [[Harbin, China|Harbin]] to [[Vladivostok]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Origins of the Russo-Japanese War|first=Ian|last=Nish|publisher=Routledge|year=2014|page=[https://archive.org/details/originsofrussoja0000nish/page/31 31]|isbn=9780582491144|url=https://archive.org/details/originsofrussoja0000nish/page/31}}</ref>

The Japanese ultra-nationalist [[Black Dragon Society]] initially supported [[Sun Yat-sen]]'s activities against the Qing state, hoping that an overthrow of the Qing would enable a Japanese takeover of the Manchu homeland, with the belief that Han Chinese would not oppose it. [[Tōyama Mitsuru]], who was the Society's leader as well as a member of the pan-Asian secret society [[Gen'yōsha]], additionally believed that the anti-Qing revolutionaries would even aid the Japanese in taking over, as well as helping them to enlarge the opium trade that the Qing were currently trying to destroy. The Society would support Sun and other anti-Manchu revolutionaries until the Qing ultimately collapsed.<ref name="Nash1997">{{cite book|author=Jay Robert Nash|title=Spies: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Dirty Tricks and Double Dealing from Biblical Times to Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FIWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA99|date=28 October 1997|publisher=M. Evans|isbn=978-1-4617-4770-3|page=99}}</ref> In Japan, many anti-Qing revolutionaries gathered in exile, where they founded and operated the [[Tongmenghui]] resistance movement, whose first meeting was hosted by the Black Dragon Society.<ref name="BergèreLloyd1998">{{cite book|author1=Marie-Claire Bergère|author2=Janet Lloyd|title=Sun Yat-sen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vh7M1u4IGFkC&pg=PA132|year=1998|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-4011-1|page=132}}</ref> The Black Dragon Society had a large impact on Sun specifically, cultivating an intimate relationship with him. Sun often promoted pan-Asianism, and sometimes even passed himself off as Japanese.<ref name="Horne2005">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vQsVCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA252|title=Race War!: White Supremacy and the Japanese Attack on the British Empire|author=Gerald Horne|publisher=NYU Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8147-3641-8|page=252}}</ref><ref name="Chung2000">{{cite book|author=Dooeum Chung|title=Élitist fascism: Chiang Kaishek's Blueshirts in 1930s China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfkvAQAAIAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=978-0-7546-1166-0|pages=61}}</ref><ref name="Chung1997">{{cite book|author=Dooeum Chung|title=A re-evaluation of Chiang Kaishek's blueshirts: Chinese fascism in the 1930s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_OY-AQAAIAAJ|year=1997|publisher=University of London|pages=78}}</ref> In the wake of the Xinhai Revolution, the Black Dragons began infiltrating China, making inroads selling opium and spreading anti-Communist sentiment. Eventually, they also began directly agitating for a Japanese takeover of Manchuria.<ref name="Carlisle2015">{{cite book|author=Rodney Carlisle|title=Encyclopedia of Intelligence and Counterintelligence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXysBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA71|date=26 March 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-47177-6|page=71}}</ref>

With the [[Russo-Japanese War]], Japanese influence largely replaced that of Russia in Manchuria. Japan had mobilized one million soldiers to fight the Russians in Manchuria, one for every eight Japanese families.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=33}} Despite shocking success, the Japanese military underwent heavy losses, ultimately incurring about 500,000 casualties.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=33}} The war caused many Japanese people to develop a more possessive attitude towards Manchuria, with Japan having sacrificed so much while fighting in Manchurian territory.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=33}} From 1905 on, Japanese publications often described Manchuria as a "sacred" and "holy" land where many Japanese had died as martyrs.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=33}} The war had almost bankrupted Japan, forcing the Japanese to accept the compromise [[Treaty of Portsmouth]] mediated by President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] of the United States, under which Japan made gains, but nowhere to the extent that the Japanese public had been expecting.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=33}} The Treaty of Portsmouth set off [[Hibiya incendiary incident|an anti-American riot]] in Tokyo between 5–7 September 1905 as the general viewpoint in Japan was that the Japanese had won the war but lost the peace. The perception in Japan was the Treaty of Portsmouth was a humiliating diplomatic disaster that did not place all of Manchuria into the Japanese sphere of influence as widely expected, and the question of Manchuria was still "unfinished business" that would one day be resolved by the Imperial Army.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=89}} In 1906, Japan established the [[South Manchurian Railway]] on the southern half of the former [[Chinese Eastern Railway]] built by Russia from [[Manzhouli]] to [[Vladivostok]] via [[Harbin]] with a branch line from Harbin to [[Lüshunkou District|Port Arthur]], now known as [[Dalian]].

Under the terms of the Treaty of Portsmouth, the Kwantung Army had the right to occupy southern Manchuria while the region fell into the Japanese economic sphere of influence.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=31}} The Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railroad company had a market capitalization of 200 million yen, making it Asia's largest corporation, which went beyond just running the former Russian railroad network in southern Manchuria to owning the ports, mines, hotels, telephone lines, and sundry other businesses, dominating the economy of Manchuria.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=31}} With the growth of the South Manchuria Railroad company (''Mantetsu'') came a growth in number of Japanese people living in Manchuria, from a Japanese population of 16,612 in 1906 to one of 233,749 in 1930.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=33}} The majority of blue-collar employees for ''Mantetsu'' were Chinese, and the Japanese employees were mostly white-collar, meaning most of the Japanese living in Manchuria were middle-class people who saw themselves as an elite.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=34}} In Japan, Manchuria was widely seen as analogous to the Wild West: a dangerous frontier region full of bandits, revolutionaries, and warlords, but also a land of boundless wealth and promise, where it was possible for ordinary people to become very well-off.{{sfn|Young|1998|p=34}} During the interwar period, Manchuria once again became a political and military battleground between Russia, Japan, and China. Imperial Japan moved into Russia's far eastern territories, taking advantage of internal chaos following the [[Russian Revolution]]. However, in the years following the establishment of the Soviet Union, a combination of Soviet military successes and American economic pressure forced the Japanese to withdraw from the area, and Outer Manchuria would be under Soviet control by 1925.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}