South Manchuria Railway (Mantetsu) May 1920 Schedule

The South Manchuria Railway ( ja, 南満州鉄道, translit=Minamimanshū Tetsudō; ), officially , Mantetsu ( ja, 満鉄, translit=Mantetsu) or Mantie () for short, was a large of the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian– Fengtian (Mukden)–

Changchun Changchun (, ; ), also romanized as Ch'angch'un, is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a , comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 c ...

(called

Xinjing Xinjing may refer to: *'' Heart Sutra'' or ''Xinjing'' (心經), a Chinese-language sutra in Mahāyāna Buddhism Places in China * Changchun, the capital city of Jilin, known as Xinjing (新京) during the Manchukuo era (1932–1945) * Xinjing Tow ...

from 1931 to 1945) corridor in northeastern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, as well as on several branch lines. In 1905, after Russia's defeat in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

, this area was taken over by Japan as the

South Manchuria Railway Zone The South Manchuria Railway Zone ( ja, 南満州鉄道附属地, translit=Minami Manshū Tetsudō Fuzoku-chi; ) or SMR Zone, was the area of Japanese extraterritorial rights in northeast China, in connection with the operation of the South Man ...

. Mantetsu was established in 1906 to operate the railways taken over from the Russians. Subsequently, Mantetsu expanded by building new lines for itself and for Chinese-owned undertakings, and after the establishment of the

puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its o ...

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

in 1932, it was also entrusted with the management of the

Manchukuo National Railway The Manchukuo National Railway (Traditional Chinese and Japanese kanji: , Japanese romanization: ''Manshū Kokuyū Tetsudō'') was the state-owned national railway company of Manchukuo. Generally called the "國線" ("National Line", ''Kokusen' ...

. Between 1917 and 1925, Mantetsu was also responsible for the management of the

Chosen Government Railway Chosen or The Chosen may refer to: The chosen ones *Chosen people, people who believe they have been chosen by a higher power to do a certain thing including ** Jews as the chosen people Books * ''The Chosen'' (Potok novel), a 1967 novel by Chaim ...

Japanese-occupied Korea Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business offic ...

. However, it was also involved in nearly every aspect of the economic, cultural and political life of

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

,Kinney, Henry W., ''Manchuria Today'', Dairen, December 1930 from power generation to agricultural research, for which reason it was often referred to as "Japan's

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

in China".

Nisshō Inoue was a radical Buddhist preacher of Nichirenism who founded the interwar Japanese far-right militant organization . Contrary to popular belief, he was never an ordained Nichiren priest, but was rather a self-styled preacher whose extremist tenet ...

, the founder of the interwar Japanese far-right militant organization Ketsumeidan (血盟団, League of Blood), was employed by ''Mantestu'' from 1909 to 1920. In 1945, the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

invaded and overran Manchukuo, and following Japan's defeat in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

, Mantetsu itself was dissolved by order of the American occupation authorities in

occupied Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United State ...

. The railway was operated by the Soviets for a time, and handed over to China Railway after the establishment of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1949. Fengtian has been called Shenyang since 1945, and the line from there to Dalian is today part of the

Shenda Railway Shenda may be: * Shenda highway, running between Shenyang and Dalian, Liaoning, China *A colloquial name for Shenzhen University, Guangdong, China ** Shenda Station, Shenzhen Metro Line 1, which is named for the university People with the name Shen ...

from

to Dalian, whilst the Shenyang–Changchun section is now part of the

Jingha Railway Jingha may refer to: * Jingha Expressway, expressway in China that links Beijing to Harbin * Jingha railway, railway in China that connects Beijing with Harbin {{Disambig ...

; the branch lines have also been part of China Railway since then.

History

Japanese Government Railways Wartime Route Map

The main line from Changchun to Port Arthur, as Luishun was called under Russian rule, was built between 1898 and 1903 by the Russians as the southern branch of their

Chinese Eastern Railway The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (, russian: Китайско-Восточная железная дорога, or , ''Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga'' or ''KVZhD''), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (als ...

according to the 1896 secret treaty and the 1898 lease convention between Qing China and

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

in the aftermath of the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

. Following the Japanese victory over

in 1905 after the

and the signing of the

Treaty of Portsmouth A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...

, most of the southern branch (

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

— Port Arthur) of the

China Eastern Railway The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (, russian: Китайско-Восточная железная дорога, or , ''Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga'' or ''KVZhD''), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (als ...

was transferred to Japanese control. The last station remaining in Russian hands was at Kuanchengzi () in modern-day

. The northernmost Japanese-controlled station was the

Changchun railway station Changchun station () is a railway station of Beijing–Harbin railway, Harbin–Dalian railway, Changchun–Tumen railway, Changchun–Baicheng railway and Changchun–Jilin intercity railway. The station is located in Changchun, in the Jil ...

."Provisional Convention ... concerning the junction of the Japanese and Russian Railways in Manchuria" – June 13, 1907. Under the authorization of Emperor Meiji, Japan then established a new semi-privately held company, the South Manchurian Railway Company (a.k.a. ''Mantetsu''), with a

capitalization Capitalization (American English) or capitalisation (British English) is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (uppercase letter) and the remaining letters in lower case, in writing systems with a case distinction. The term a ...

of 200 million

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

to operate the railroad and to develop settlements and industries along its route. The organizing committee was headed by General

Kodama Gentarō Viscount was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army and a government minister during the Meiji period. He was instrumental in establishing the modern Imperial Japanese military. Early life Kodama was born on March 16, 1852, in Toku ...

, and after his death, by General

Terauchi Masatake Gensui Count Terauchi Masatake ( ja, 寺内正毅), GCB (5 February 1852 – 3 November 1919), was a Japanese military officer, proconsul and politician. He was a '' Gensui'' (or Marshal) in the Imperial Japanese Army and the Prime Minister o ...

. Count Gotō Shimpei, formerly the Japanese governor of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, was appointed the first president of the company, and the headquarters was established in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

before relocated to Dalian in 1907.Coox, Nomonhan pp.6 One of the first tasks of the new company was to change the railway gauge. The rail line was originally built according to the gauge of , during the war it had been converted by the advancing Japanese troops to the Japanese gauge, in order to facilitate the use of rolling stock brought from Japan. But once the new Japanese South Manchuria Railway Company took possession of the line, it had the tracks re-gauged again, now to the gauge of , Luis Jackson, Industrial Commissioner of the Erie Railroad. "Rambles in Japan and China". I
Railway and Locomotive Engineering
vol. 26 (March 1913), pp. 91-92 presumably with an eye to connecting the system to other railways of China. In 1907, an agreement was reached between the Japanese and Russian authorities about connecting the Japanese South Manchuria Railway with the line to the north, which remained in the hands of Russian China Far East Railway. According to the agreement, Russian gauge tracks would continue from the "Russian" Kuanchengzi Station to the "Japanese" Changchun station, and vice versa, tracks on the "gauge adapted by the South Manchuria Railway" (i.e., the standard gauge) would continue from the Changchun Station to the Kuancheng Station. By the end of 1907, the company employed 9,000 Japanese and 4,000 Chinese. By 1910, those numbers had increased to 35,000 and 25,000 respectively. The railway used a significant amount of U.S.-made rails and signaling equipment, as well as some

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s built by the American Locomotive Company at

Dunkirk, NY Dunkirk is a city in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. It was settled around 1805 and incorporated in 1880. The population was 12,743 as of the 2020 census. Dunkirk is bordered on the north by Lake Erie. It shares a border with the vil ...

. A visiting executive from the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Er ...

was quite impressed with the arrangement, and described South Manchurian Railway ca. 1913 as "the only railroad in the whole world that is like our American railroads (and they are, fairly speaking, the best)". South Manchuria Railway Promotional

''Mantetsu'' quickly expanded the system inherited from Russia to staggering proportions, building

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s at

Fushun Fushun (, formerly romanised as ''Fouchouen'', using French spelling, also as Fuxi ()) is a prefecture level city in Liaoning province, China, about east of Shenyang, with a total area of , of which is the city proper. Situated on the Hun Rive ...

and

Yantai Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao on the ...

, and harbor facilities at Andong,

Yingkou Yingkou () is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , and the ninth most popul ...

, and Dalian. At each station, ''Mantetsu'' built hotels for travelers and warehouses for goods. Japanese settlers were encouraged through the construction of schools, libraries, hospitals and

public utilities A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and r ...

. The ''Mantetsu'' Research Wing was the centerpiece of Japan's colonial program, and instigated

agricultural research Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Profession ...

into development of

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...

farming. Land under cultivation expanded 70% in 20 years.Coox, Nomonhan pp.21 From 1916, ''Mantestu'' began to spin off a number of subsidiary companies, including

Showa Steel Works The () was a Japanese government-sponsored steel mill that was one of the showpieces of the industrialization program for Manchukuo in the late 1930s. Shōwa Steel Works began as the ''Anshan Iron & Steel Works'', a subsidiary of the South Ma ...

, Dalian Ceramics, Dalian Oil & Fat, South Manchurian Glass, as well as

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...

s, sugar mills, electrical power plants,

shale oil Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil c ...

plants and chemical plants. On 31 July 1917, the management of the

(''Sentetsu'') in

was transferred from the Railway Bureau of the Government-General of Korea to Mantetsu, which established the Mantetsu Keijō/Gyeongseong Railway Administration ( ja, 満鉄京城管理局, ; ko, 만철 경성 관리국, ''Mancheol Gyeongseong Gwalliguk''), and under Mantetsu control Korea's railway network was expanded rapidly. On 1 April 1925, management of Sentetsu was returned to the Railway Bureau, though Mantetsu retained control of the line along the Korea–Manchuria border from the port of

Najin Rajin-guyŏk () is a North Korean district on Rason in the Sea of Japan (East Sea of Korea) in the North Pacific Ocean on the northeast tip of North Korea. It is in the Kwanbuk region and location in the south of Rason. North of it lies the North ...

in Korea to Tumen in Manchuria and to Sangsambong in Korea. Mantetsu called this line the North Chosen Line, and it remained under Mantetsu control until 1945. Company assets rose from 163 million yen in 1908 to over a billion yen in 1930. ''Mantetsu'' was by far the largest corporation in Japan, and also its most profitable, averaging rates of return from 25 to 45 percent per year. During the 1920s, Mantetsu provided for over a quarter of the Japanese government's

tax revenue Tax revenue is the income that is collected by governments through taxation. Taxation is the primary source of government revenue. Revenue may be extracted from sources such as individuals, public enterprises, trade, royalties on natural resou ...

s.Young, Japan's Total Empire, pp 31-32 Over 75% of ''Mantetsu's'' income was generated by its freight business, with the key to profitability coming from soybean exports, both to Japan proper and to Europe. Soybean production increased exponentially with increasing demand for soy oil, and for soy meal for use in

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

and animal feed. By 1927, half of the world's supply of soybean was from Manchuria and the efforts by ''Mantetsu'' to expand production and to ship to export ports was a classic example of an extractive colonial economy dependent on a single product. In 1931, the Mukden Incident occurred, where the Japanese military faked an attack on the railway by Chinese partisans as a pretext for the

Japanese invasion of Manchuria The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden Incident. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Their occupation lasted until the ...

''Mantetsu'' was also charged with a government-like role in managing the rail transportation system after the formation of

in 1932, including management of the (theoretically independent)

. By 1938, Mantetsu had 72 subsidiary companies, development projects in 25 urban areas and carried 17,515,000 passengers per year. Between 1930 and 1940, the Japanese population of Manchukuo rose by 800,000 making ethnic Japanese the majority in many of the towns and cities served by ''Mantetsu''. ''Mantetsu'' prided itself on state-of-the-art

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

, with modern

sewer system Sewerage (or sewage system) is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff ( stormwater, meltwater, rainwater) using sewers. It encompasses components such as receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, and sc ...

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to re ...

s, and creative

modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

far in advance of what could be found in Japan itself. These things were possible due to ''Mantetsu's'' tremendous profitability, and its political power to seize property and silence opposition and dissent at will through its political connections to the military and

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...

national leadership. In 1934, ''Mantetsu'' inaugurated the " Asia Express", a high speed train from Dalian to the Manchukuo capital of

(Changchun). Reaching a top speed of , the "Asia Express" was the fastest scheduled train in Asia at the time. Changchun remained the

break of gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

point between the Russian and standard gauges in the 1930s, until the Chinese Eastern railway itself was bought by

and converted to the standard gauge in the mid-1930s. In 1936, the company owned 466 locomotives, 554 coaches and 8134 goods wagons. In 1945, the

invaded and overran Manchukuo.

Rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can b ...

and movable equipment was looted and taken back to the

; some was returned when the

Chinese Communist The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

government came into power. ''Mantetsu'' itself was dissolved by order of the American occupation authorities in

. The

government later merged the northern half of the South Manchuria Railway's mainline (the Renkyō Line) with other railway lines to form the present Beijing–Harbin railway.

Railway dining car service

In conjunction with magazine advertising by Japan Tourist Bureau (JTB), the railway attempted to create a unique food culture in Manchukuo. They offered a variety of special cuisine such as Yamato beef steak, Mongolian barbeque, and

sorghum vulgare ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a grass species cultivated for its grain, which is used for food for humans, animal feed, and ethanol produc ...

(kaoliang) confectionery in dining cars along the line and in the railway-operated

Yamato Hotel was a chain of hotels in Manchuria owned and operated by the South Manchuria Railway during the period from the 1910s to 1940s. Some of these hotels still exist in Northeast China, under different names. Background During the time of the South Ma ...

. There was little uptake in the cuisine however after the fall of Manchukuo.

Network

* Anpō Line: Fengtian– Andong, * Bushun Line:

Sujiatun Sujiatun District () is one of ten districts of the prefecture-level city of Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province, Northeast China, and forms part of the southern suburbs. The current population of Sujiatun is 430,000 and is located 15&nbs ...

–

, , electrified * Eikō Line:

Dashiqiao Dashiqiao () is a county-level city in south-central Liaoning province, Northeast China. It is under the administration of the prefectural city of Yingkou, the downtown of which is to the west. Administrative Divisions There are five subdist ...

–

, * Endai Colliery Line:

– Yantai Colliery, , freight only * Futō Line:

Shahekou Shahekou District () is one of the seven districts of Dalian, Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, forming part of the urban core. It is located in the western portion of the city. Its area is and its permanent population is 693,140, ma ...

– Dalian Quay, , freight only * Gusai Line: Dalian– Wuqi, , freight only * Kanseishi Line: Nanguangling– Dalian Ganjingzi Quay, , freight only * Kinjō Line:

Jinzhou Jinzhou (, ), formerly Chinchow, is a coastal prefecture-level city in central-west Liaoning province, China. It is a geographically strategic city located in the Liaoxi Corridor, which connects most of the land transports between North Chin ...

– Chengzitan, * Kon'yu Connecting Line: Hunhe– Yushutai, , freight only * North Chosen East Line: Tumen, Manchukuo– Namyang,

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

–

Unggi Sonbong County, formerly called Unggi (Chosŏn'gŭl: 웅기, Hancha: 雄基), is a subdivision of the North Korean city of Rason. It is located at the northeastern extreme of North Korea, bordering Russia and China. It lies on Unggi Bay, an exte ...

, Korea, * North Chosen West Line: Sangsambong– Namyang (entirely in Korea) * Nyūzen Line: Shahekou– Ruchuan Quay, , freight only * Rashinfutō Line:

– Najin Quay, , freight only (entirely in Korea) * Renkyō Line: Dalian–

, * Ryojun Line: Zhoushuizi– Lüshun, * Ryūshuton Line: Dafangshen– Liushutun, * Jōhei Line: Donggwan– Seongpyeong, (owned by

) * Tōho Line: Cheongseong– Tongpo, (owned by

) * Yūra Line: Unggi–

, (entirely in Korea)