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The Manchurian Incident Badge by Tom Hanley
Japan was late entering the modern world. Until
Commodore Matthew C. Perry
of the U.S. Navy went into Uragon Bay on July 14 1853 the
country was living in
medieval times. Japan had been closed to foreigners
for two and a half centuries and
death was threatened to any Japanese who left the country.
However after Perry's visit other ships entered Japan and
that country realised it
must enter the modern world. In 1871 a large contingent
of Embassy Officials left
Japan to visit the USA and Europe. They were supposed
to examine the various
treaties they had negotiated but also wanted to examine
the political, industrial,
commercial and financial systems in those countries.
On their return they could see, if
their country did not change it could end up as a dependency
of Britain like China and
India.
After Japan's victory over Russia on both land and sea
in 1905 they considered
they were in with the first class of other countries.
She sided with the Allies in WW I
but her army was confined to German possessions in China
and the Pacific.
Japan lacked fertile land and mineral wealth and had to
look overseas for food
and minerals and China had both. So it's eyes turned
towards Manchuria and invaded
that area in the early 1930's. They occupied the
three provinces and changed the name
to Manchukuo and installed an heir to the Manchu Dynasty
Henry Pu Yi as a puppet
ruler. The area remained in Japanese hands until
the end of WW II in 1945.
The purpose of this short story is to reveal an Australian
connection. The
Chinese are very nationalistic and with the takeover of
the provinces by the Japanese,
local patriotic Chinese had G.A. Miller & Sons of
Sydney manufacture a celluloid
badge featuring a map in the centre with the three lost
provinces outlined in black.
The Chinese inscription surrounding the map literally reads
"Remember China's Day of Shame".
The Remember China's Day of Shame Badge.