South Manchuria Railway Co. Imperial Japanese army WWII, extremely rare

South Manchuria Railway Co. Imperial Japanese army WWⅡ military armband

The South Manchuria Railway (Minamimanshū Tetsudō), officially The South Manchuria Railway Company, Ltd. (kyujitai, Minamimanshū Tetsudō Kabushikigaisha), Mantetsu (Mantetsu) or Mantie for short, was a large National Policy Company of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian–Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from 1931 to 1945) corridor in northeastern China, as well as on several branch lines.

In 1905, after Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, this area was taken over by Japan as the South Manchuria Railway Zone. Mantetsu was established in 1906 to operate the railways taken over from the Russians. Subsequently, Mantetsu expanded by building new lines for itself and for Chinese-owned undertakings, and after the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932, it was also entrusted with the management of the Manchukuo National Railway. Between 1917 and 1925, Mantetsu was also responsible for the management of the Chosen Government Railway in Japanese-occupied Korea.

However, it was also involved in nearly every aspect of the economic, cultural and political life of Manchuria, from power generation to agricultural research, for which reason it was often referred to as “Japan’s East India Company in China”. Nisshō Inoue, the founder of the interwar Japanese far-right militant organization Ketsumeidan (League of Blood), was employed by Mantetsu from 1909 to 1920.

Mantetsu was also charged with a government-like role in managing the rail transportation system after the formation of Manchukuo in 1932, including management of the (theoretically independent) Manchukuo National Railway. By 1938, Mantetsu had 72 subsidiary companies, development projects in 25 urban areas and carried 17,515,000 passengers per year. Between 1930 and 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 were 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.

In 1934, Mantetsu inaugurated the “Asia Express”, a high speed train from Dalian to the Manchukuo capital of Xinjing (Changchun). Reaching a top speed of 134 km/h (83 mph), the “Asia Express” was the fastest scheduled train in Asia at the time.

Changchun remained the break of gauge point between the Russian and standard gauges in the 1930s, until the Chinese Eastern railway itself was bought by Manchukuo and converted to the standard gauge in the mid-1930s.

In 1936, the company owned 466 locomotives, 554 coaches and 8134 goods wagons.

In 1945, the Soviet Union invaded and overran Manchukuo. Rolling stock and movable equipment was looted and taken back to the Soviet Union; some was returned when the Chinese Communist government came into power. Mantetsu itself was dissolved by order of the American occupation authorities in occupied Japan. The People’s Republic of China government later merged the northern half of the South Manchuria Railway’s mainline (the Renkyō Line) with other railway lines to form the present Beijing–Harbin railway.

In 1945, the Soviet Union invaded and overran Manchukuo, and following Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War, Mantetsu itself was dissolved by order of the American occupation authorities in occupied Japan. The railway was operated by the Soviets for a time, and handed over to China Railway after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Fengtian has been called Shenyang since 1945, and the line from there to Dalian is today part of the Shenda Railway from Changchun to Dalian, whilst the Shenyang–Changchun section is now part of the Jingha Railway; the branch lines have also been part of China Railway since then.