Chapter 31 30. Connivance makes the Kwantung Army more confident

Zhang Xueliang in Peking is looking forward to a proper solution to this incident from the Nanjing side. The Nanjing side is looking forward to a proper solution to this incident from international justice. "There is a proper solution. On this day, in Tokyo, the General Staff, the Army Ministry, and the Prime Minister were also discussing back and forth on the scope of the Kwantung Army's military occupation, making intensive plans for the aftermath. After several days of military operations, the Japanese army has controlled most of Liaoning and Jilin. On the 22nd, the Kwantung Army began to actively plan to send troops to Harbin.Telegrams requesting the Central Department of the Army to approve its dispatch to Harbin were sent to Tokyo one after another.In the evening of that day, Ninomiya Jishige, the deputy chief of staff, heard a broadcast on the radio at home saying, "A part of our army has entered Harbin." Find out if this message is true.Although it has been verified that this report is rumored, it seems that the headquarters should indeed make a decision on the boundaries of the Kwantung Army's military occupation.

On the morning of the 23rd, Vice Minister of the Army Sugiyama Moto, Deputy Chief of Staff Ninomiya Harushige, Director of the Military Affairs Bureau Koiso Kuni Showa, and Head of Education Directorate Sadao Araki held a meeting to discuss the scope of the Kwantung Army's military occupation.After discussion, a document entitled "On the Scope of Military Occupation" began to be formed. 1. In the current state of almost anarchy in the four northeastern provinces, in order to carry out the original mission of our army and ensure the safety of our army itself, it is necessary to maintain a vigilant force along the long periphery of the Manchuria Railway.At a minimum, we must ensure: (1) to the west about the Liaohe River, that is, to the Zhengjiatun, Xinmintun and Yingkou line; (2) to the east to Jilin and Hailong.

2. According to China's military operations and its anti-Japanese behavior, expand the strongholds of our cordon outwards, and even occupy them militarily if necessary: ​​(1) to the west to the Taonan, Tongliao, and Dahushan lines; (2) to the west East to Dunhua and Jianhui area. 3. For the issue of sending troops to protect the overseas Chinese in our Harbin and Jianhui areas, the necessary formalities shall be fulfilled at the request of our diplomatic officials stationed in the area, and the action shall be carried out according to the emperor's order.In the unlikely event that a major incident occurs here, the military will not be held responsible.

This document actually divides the scope of the Kwantung Army's military operations into three levels: areas that must be guaranteed to be occupied at a minimum, areas that can be occupied when necessary, and areas that should be operated cautiously according to the situation. In view of the fact that the Kwantung Army has actually sent troops to Jilin beyond the "Manchurian Railway Attachment" and broke through the precedent of "maintaining the status quo of sending troops", the first two actually granted the Kwantung Army the right to move freely according to needs. As for the third article, The staff is mainly concerned about the possible reaction of the Soviet Union and the attitude of the cabinet, while the cabinet is more cautious because it is concerned about Japan's international image.But in any case, the scope delineated by the staff is based on expanding the occupied area.

After the four formed such an opinion, they first obtained the consent of Chief of Staff Kanaya Nozomi, and then Vice Minister Sugiyama handed it over to Minister of the Army Minamijiro for review.But unexpectedly, Nanjiro categorically disagreed with such a plan.Sugiyama had no choice but to hold a meeting with the Deputy Chief of Staff of Ninomiya, Chief of Military Affairs Bureau Oiso, and Chief of Operations Imamura to negotiate. After the negotiation, he persuaded Nanjiro, but Nanjiro still disagreed.Not only that, Nanjiro also personally went to the official residence of Chief of Staff Kanaya to persuade the chief to change his mind.

It turns out that if the prime minister just entered the palace yesterday to give a speech to the emperor: in Harbin and Jiandao, the expatriates were not protected on the spot, but were withdrawn to the country in times of crisis.However, on the afternoon of the 23rd, the Tokyo branch of the Manchurian Railway received a telegram from the head office, which stated that "the Kwantung Army wants the Changchun Kuanchengzi Station Master to transport troops, and the train for the Middle East Railway is scheduled to leave at noon on the 23rd." .This obviously indicates that the Kwantung Army will send troops to Harbin.If the Prime Minister learned of the news, he immediately summoned Minister Nanjiro Lu, Foreign Minister Kijuro Kobara, and Minister Junnosuke Inoue to the Prime Minister's residence for negotiations.If you first ask Nanjiro to check with the Kwantung Army whether troops have been dispatched to Harbin, then discuss the Jilin issue.Cabinet officials such as Gebara and Inoue advocated the withdrawal of troops based on the policy of "not expanding the situation" in the cabinet's understanding.Nanjiro deeply felt that the opinions of the military and the cabinet on the handling of the Manchurian Incident were too far apart. If the military went too far, it would be impossible to get the understanding and support of the cabinet, so he wanted to make some compromises.Therefore, when Nanjiro expressed his opinion in this regard, on the one hand, he promised that he would never act arbitrarily in the future, as a compromise;

Because of this reason, not to mention that the Kwantung Army’s idea of ​​aggressively marching into Harbin will not be approved by the cabinet, even the “Scope of Military Occupation” issued by the General Staff Headquarters is far from the resolution of the cabinet. When Minamijiro brought this document on the scope of military occupation to express his opinion, instead of agreeing to the document, he went to the official residence of the Chief of Staff to persuade Kanaya Nozomi and Chief Kanaya himself. At 8:00 p.m. that night, Chief Kanaya called Umezu Yoshijiro, Director of General Affairs of the General Staff Headquarters, and said, "I basically agreed with the scope of the military occupation in the morning, but as a result of the research conducted with Minister (Nanjiro), I think we should agree. Therefore, it is necessary to revise my original opinion." Then, an order was issued to revise the "Scope of Military Occupation".

The Army Ministry and the General Staff Headquarters immediately re-conducted research and consultations.At the meeting, Mr. Imamura, Chief of Operations, first expressed his resolute disobedience to Prime Minister Lu's plan, and Director of the Military Affairs Bureau, Koiso Kuniaki, also passionately expressed his strong support for Imamura's proposition.Some people even asked whether the senior veteran soldier, General Kawasao, could be invited to persuade Prime Minister Lu. Imamura objected to this. It was already 9:30 in the evening, and the deputy chief of staff, Ninomiya Harushige, the army minister, Sugiyama Moto, and the military affairs chief, Koiso Kuniaki, drove to Lu Xiang's mansion again, trying to persuade Minamijiro.Although Nanjiro expressed his deep gratitude to the three chiefs for their enthusiastic support, he still insisted on the issue of the scope of military occupation: "Incorporate all troops into the dependent territory and dispatch them at will by the military department as the basis for seeking to solve the Manchurian issue. In solving the above-mentioned When there is a problem, you can also make some concessions to the government on insignificant details.” According to Nanjiro’s thinking, it is not that all troops are withdrawn to the dependent areas, and the areas along the Manchurian Railway where the Japanese army has the right to reside are its dependent areas. , Jilin is not included, and Nanjiro does not advocate the withdrawal of troops from Jilin (city), so the inclusion of all troops in the dependent territory does not include the troops that have been sent to Jilin (city).

The three of them took turns persuading Nanjiro, but they still couldn't change his mind. Until late at night, Nanjiro begged Ninomiya, the deputy chief of staff, to reconsider from the perspective of tactics and command, and think about it for another night. Japan has such a characteristic that leaders usually do not tend to actively and clearly demonstrate their determination and intentions, so as not to be involved in direct decision-making choices and conflicts, because the collective psychology of Japanese society is most afraid of the split of internal opinions , so in Japanese society, there is a strong pressure of herd behavior.Therefore, its leaders mostly passively wait for subordinates to reach a consensus by means of hints and inducements, and then accept this consensus into a formal decision.It was the same with the attitude of the Japanese emperor, government and military to the incident, and it was the same with the vice ministers and bureau chiefs who tried to persuade him to change his mind.And all of this, in fact, is tantamount to indulging the impatient and willful Kwantung Army even more.