Manchukuo was a
puppet state set up by the
Empire of Japan in
Manchuria which existed from 1931 to 1945. The Manchukuo regime was established four months after the Japanese withdrawal from Shanghai with
Puyi as the nominal but powerless head of state[1] to add some semblance of legitimacy, as he was a former
emperor and an ethnic
Manchu.
Government
"Manchukuo government" redirects here. For the modern organisation, see
Manchukuo Government.
Manchukuo was proclaimed a
monarchy on 1 March 1934, with former
Qing dynasty emperor
Puyi assuming the Manchukuo throne under the reign name of Emperor Kang-de. An
imperial rescript issued the same day, promulgated the
organic law of the new state, establishing a
Privy Council, a
Legislative Council and the
General Affairs State Council to "advise and assist the emperor in the discharge of his duties". The Privy Council was an appointive body consisting of Puyi's closest friends and confidants, and the Legislative Council was largely an honorary body without authority. The State Council was therefore the center of political power in Manchukuo. The organic law was largely an abridged version of the
Imperial Japanese Constitution, with an important difference being the lack of any mention of
civil rights and the increased authority of the Privy Council. As with all other aspects of Manchukuo, the government was purely ceremonial and existed to authenticate the
puppet state rather than to rule the people of Manchukuo. True authority remained in the hands of the
Kwantung Army.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
During his administration, the
Kangde Emperor, in an interview with foreign journalists, mentioned his interest in forming a political party with
Confucian doctrines. The Japanese "native" establishment, however, organized some
right-wing and
nationalist parties, in the
Shōwa militarist mould. Such movements, which had official status, were:
Nobusuke Kishi, Deputy Minister of Industrial Development, architect of the exploitative slave economy in Manchukuo, war criminal and later post-war
Prime Minister of Japan
Chu Kudo, Chamberlain, aide-de-camp to Emperor Puyi
Yoshioka Yasunori Army senior staff officer and Attaché to the Imperial Household in Manchukuo
Kenjiro Hayashide official Kangde emperor biographer and author of "Epochal Journey to Japan"