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V THE EARLY PERIOD OF THE JAPANESE INVASION 193M933 The Manchurian Incident and the Mongolian Response During the summer of 1931, a series of conflicts occurred between the Chinese and the Japanese military adventurers along the Korean border. Among these conflicts, the Wanbaoshan Incident was the most sinister; because of this incident, tension between the two countries greatly increased. These incidents were planned and instigated by the Japanese militarists to create a pretext for invasion. In the early morning of September 18, 1931, the Japanese army stationed at the Japanese Concession in the Shenyang (Mukden) area shelled the military base of Zhang Xueliang’s forces located at the Northern Camp and started the Manchurian Incident. At that very moment, Zhang, who was in Beiping, asked for instructions from Nanjing. The watchword of the KMT was “ nonresistance,” a policy that, it was thought, would earn China the support of world opinion and force the Japanese to back down through peace ful measures. Although the League of Nations in Geneva was sympathetic to China, such moral support could neither help the antiaggressive advocacy of certain Japanese politi cians nor halt the militarists’ adventures. The Japanese Guandong Army in Dalian and LUshun took advantage of the Chinese policy of nonresistance to swiftly occupy all of Manchuria, including the Jerim League, the Hulunbuir area, and the Yeke-Minggan Ban ner of eastern Inner Mongolia. During this time, the Soviet Union’s military was suffer ing from Stalin’s purges, and so could mobilize no real strength to halt Japanese expan sion. This incident had a great impact in Mongolia, China, and northeast Asia. It also changed Prince De’s fate and made him a notable figure in the history of twentieth- century Mongolia. Further, it marked the beginning of open Japanese intervention in Mongolian affairs. As for Prince De himself, this incident was a major turning point. It not only changed his philosophy of life, but also gradually led him away from an extreme conservative position toward all kinds of progressive liberal ideologies, and from a nar row-minded desire for rehabilitation of Mongolian feudalistic institutions to the goals of Mongolian national survival and independence. The Japanese occupation of Mukden unexpectedly deprived many Mongols of their political bases. Merse’s Normal Academy of the Northeast Mongolian Banners was affected first, and it disintegrated. As for Merse himself, because of his earlier involve ment with the Comintern and the Inner Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party, he felt deep antagonism toward Japan. Moreover, because of his socialistic inclinations, he left Mukden immediately after the fall of the city and returned to his homeland, Hulunbuir. Later, when Japanese forces invaded that area, he proceeded to Ulaanbaatar and disap peared. Some reports said that he was killed by Su Bingwen, a commander of the Chi- V: The Early Period of the Japanese Invasion 47 nese remnant forces, but there is no evidence to supportthis. Although the Normal Academy of the Northeast Mongolian Banners existed for only two years, many students were influenced by Merse’s zeal for Mongolian recon struction and survival. Among them, a group of radicals deeply influenced by his leftist inclinations later joined the Communist International upon the recommendation of one Altanbagana, a Kharachin Mongol who was trained in Ulaanbaatar during the active pe riod of the Inner Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party. These young radicals joined the Communist Party not necessarily because of their devotion to the philosophy of Marx and Lenin, but rather to fulfill their own strong nationalistic aspirations. Their goal was to unite Inner and Outer Mongolia and to establish an independent country for all Mon gols. During the Japanese occupation, most of the students of this academy left Mukden, returned to their homes, and waited for their chance to struggle for the survival of their own people. The Mongol princes and nobles were, of course, also disturbed. Among them. Prince Namjilsereng of the Darkhan Banner (formally known as the Khorchin Left Cen tral Banner), then the deputy head of the Jerim League, fled to Beiping, along with his family. Wubao, the newly appointed jasag of Bingtu Banner (formally known as the Khorchin Left Front Banner), also soon fled to Beiping. The goal of this man, an oppor tunist, was perhaps to show his loyalty to the Chinese government merely to assure his own personal political advantage in the future. The great majority of the ruling nobles simply waited anxiously for the dust to settle. By this time, the Japanese militarists had already brought the former Manchu emperor, Puyi, from Tianjin to Dalian and prepared to use him as a political puppet to appease the people of the Japanese-occupied regions. Some Mongol nobles who had re ceived their ranks and titles from the former dynasty began to relax and look forward to an imperial restoration and the renewal of all their feudalistic privileges. Some even hoped a second Qing Dynasty would be established. The leaders of this group were Chimedsampil, the head of the Jerim League; Yeshikhaishun, the Tushiyetu prince of the Khorchin Right Central Banner; and Guifii and his son, Lingsheng, of the Hulunbuir area. The liaison officer between the Japanese Guandong Army and the Mongols was Jitsuzo Kikutake, a special agent of the Southern Manchurian Railway Company. The Japanese occupation of Manchuria spawned two political rumors: one raised hopes forthe restoration of the Manchu’s Qing Dynasty; the other looked forward to establishment of a Manchu-Mongol country. The Mongols responded differently to these two rumors. The former won the support of the nobles; the latter particularly ap pealed to the intellectuals and commoners. It soon became apparent, however, that these rumors were in fact groundless. First, it would have been extremely difficult to effect a complete restoration of the Qing Dynasty because too many things had changed since the abdication of the last Manchu emperor twenty years earlier. Second, after the death of Prince Gungsangnorbu in the spring of 1930, Inner Mongolia lost its common leader, a man who had high prestige and enjoyed personal contacts with many Japanese leaders. Many Mongols who were antagonistic toward Chinese cultivation of herding lands would have been glad to see the Japanese push the Chinese settlers out from their former grazing fields. That was the attitude of many Mongols in the realms under Japan ese occupation. But the response from the western limer Mongolian leaders was different from that in the east. They maintained a wait-and-see attitude and had no desire for the Japanese to intervene further in their own areas. Most of the conservative ruling nobles 48 The Last Mongol Prince were more pro-Chinese than pro-Manchu, and feared Japanese aggression. The intellec tuals, liberal or radical, were mostly influenced by their Chinese educations and were basically anti-Japanese. As for the two leagues of Josotu and Juu Uda, although the Japa nese had not yet invaded their territory, it was clear that their central locations made in vasion inevitable, and their leaders could do nothing but wait and prepare for the change to come. Moreover, because of their close relationship with the Nanjing government, they were more disillusionedthan most. A group of eastern Mongolian intellectuals tried to use the Manchurian Incident to create a movement to establish an independent Mongolian state. They organized their own military forces and attacked and occupied such cities in Mongolian territory as Taonan and Bayantala (Tongliao), that were still occupied by remnant Chinese forces. At first, the Japanese tolerated their activities; but as this manifestation of Mongolian na tionalism peaked, Japan decided to establish its puppet state, Manchukuo (“The Manchu Country”), and brought the movement to a halt by threatening to kill its leaders. Under such circumstances, the nationalists disbanded their forces “ of their own accord.” The most influential initiators of this movement were Jirgalang, a Dahur Mongol intellectual educated in Japan; Khafungga, an intellectual from the Bingtu Banner and a former stu dent of Merse at the Normal Academy of the Northeast Mongolian Banners and Ashkan, an intellectual from the Darkhan Banner, educated in the Mongolian-Tibetan Academy in Beiping. In order to pacify these intellectuals, the Japanese offered them official posts in the Manchukuo government. But their desire for Mongolian self-determination did not waver. Afterward, when Prince De initiated the Inner Mongolian Autonomy Movement, many young men came to join him from areas of Japanese occupation. Their dissatisfac tion with Japanese policy toward the Mongols in Manchukuo was one of the main rea sons for their defections. Jirgalang was one of these young men. The Changing Situation in Nanjing and Manchuria Japan’s invasion had tremendous political impact on the Chinese government. China’s policy of nonresistance was seriously criticized by the great majority of the Chi nese people and created many political problems. In the spring of 1932, after a long per iod of consultation between different groups in the KMT, Chiang Kai-shek decided to step down from his administrative position and assume the position of chairman of the military committee in order to manage the national defense against Japan and the pacifi cation of the Chinese Communists. Chiang had his long-time political opponent Wang Jingwei take over the Executive Yuan, the central organ of national administration. The KMT soon reshuffled the government to encourage unity among national minorities and convened the Conference on National Calamities at Luoyang in April 1932. Prince De, Wu Heling, and a dozen of the Mongol leaders were invited to attend the conference. Some Tibetans were also invited, among whom were two leading figures with intimate connections with Mongolia: the Panchen Lama and the Janggiya Khutugtu.

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