page_title: Mukden Incident
section_title: Incident
hierarchical_section_title: Mukden Incident / Incident
caption_attribution_description: Railway sabotage site, near Mukden, northeastern China, 18 Sep 1931, photo 1 of 2，日本語: 1931年の柳条湖事件で爆破された線路Nederlands: Mukden spoorweg anno 1931
context_page_description: The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, was an event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the Japanese invasion in 1931 of northeastern China, known as Manchuria.
  On 18 September 1931, Lt. Suemori Kawamoto of the Independent Garrison Unit of the 29th Japanese Infantry Regiment detonated a small quantity of dynamite close to a railway line owned by Japan's South Manchuria Railway near Mukden. The explosion was so weak that it failed to destroy the track, and a train passed over it minutes later. The Imperial Japanese Army accused Chinese dissidents of the act and responded with a full invasion that led to the occupation of Manchuria, in which Japan established its puppet state of Manchukuo six months later. The deception was exposed by the Lytton Report of 1932, leading Japan to diplomatic isolation and its March 1933 withdrawal from the League of Nations.
  The bombing act is known as the Liutiaohu Incident, and the entire episode of events is known in Japan as the Manchurian Incident and in China as the September 18 Incident.
context_section_description: Colonel Seishirō Itagaki, Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara, Colonel Kenji Doihara, and Major Takayoshi Tanaka had completed plans for the incident by 31 May 1931.
  The plan was executed when 1st Lieutenant Suemori Komoto of the Independent Garrison Unit (独立守備隊) of the 29th Infantry Regiment, which guarded the South Manchuria Railway, placed explosives near the tracks, but far enough away to do no real damage. At around 10:20 pm (22:20), 18 September, the explosives were detonated. However, the explosion was minor and only a 1.5-meter section on one side of the rail was damaged. In fact, a train from Changchun passed by the site on this damaged track without difficulty and arrived at Shenyang at 10:30 pm (22:30).
caption: A section of the Liǔtiáo Railway. The caption reads "railway fragment".
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