In 1931 the military forces demonstrated their independence by starting war of territorial aggrandizement without the knowledge of the civil government. The officers in command of the Japanese troops which were policing the South Manchuria Railway discovered on the night of September 18-19, 1931 a detachment of Chinese soldiers near Mukden trying to blow up the South Manchurian Railways.
They immediately took action ‘to repress banditry’. After some fighting they disarmed or dispersed about 10,000 Chinese soldiers in Mukden. During the next four days the Japanese army occupied the Chinese town within a radius of 200 miles north of Mukden.
By January 1932 the whole of Manchuria came under Japanese control. In February 1932 the Japanese installed a negative provisional government at Mukden and encouraged it to declare itself as independent state under the name of Manchukuo.
The Chinese Government lodged a protest with the League of Nations against the Japanese action and appealed to member states to intervene. But as most of the powers were busy fighting the problem of depression in their countries, they did not intervene. The League of Nations, however, appointed a Commission under lord Lytton to look into the matter.
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The Commission after six months’ investigation recommended that Japan be censured and Manchuria was given an autonomous government under Chinese sovereignty. Japan, however, refused to comply with these recommendations of the Commission and retained Manchuria under his control.
In 1933 Japan withdrew from the League. Thus the League could not take any action against Japan except an expression of regret over the acts of Japan.
The actions of military and navy, though unauthorized, were received by the businessmen, bureaucrats, as well as the people with great admiration. The Japanese Government in fact steadfastly maintained that there had been no war in Manchuria and described it simply as an incident.
In the meanwhile at home the military extremists resorted to political assassinations. On 15 May 1932 a group of young naval officers and cadets assssinated Premier Inukai, on the plea that they were trying to free the Emperor from the civil advisers. Taking advantage of this incident the army put up a demand for ending of party cabinet.
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Viscount Admiral Saito, a professional naval officer, was selected as the compromise Premier of National Government consisting of bureaucrats, contingents of political parties and armed forces.
In this cabinet the civil and the armed personnel were equally balanced. However, with the passage of time the military element of the cabinet grew stronger and the party representation dwindled. The militarists also started playing more effective role in the formulation of government policies.
The militarists also gradually curtailed the powers of the Diet and ultimately reduced it to the position of a debating society. However, they made no bid to abolish it because it was a gift from the Meiji Emperor.