The refers to the extrajudicial killing of Imperial Japanese Army

Imperial Japanese Army

-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

 Captain Shintarō Nakamura and three others, on 27 June 1931 by Chinese

Republic of China

The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

 soldiers in Manchuria

Manchuria

Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...

.

Background

Captain Nakamura, a regular Japanese Army officer, was on an official mission under orders of the Kwantung Army detachment in the South Manchurian Railway Zone. Early in June, Captain Nakamura obtained a "huchao" (pass) from the Chinese authorities in Mukden, which allowed him and his party rights of free passage through Manchuria, with the exception of the militarily-sensitive border area between Taonan

Taonan

-Administrative Divisions:There are 6 subdistricts, 5 towns, 14 townships, and 2 ethnic townships.Subdistricts:*Tuanjie Subdistrict , Fuwen Subdistrict , Guangming Subdistrict , Xinglong Subdistrict , Yongkang Subdistrict , Tongda Subdistrict Towns:*Wafang , Wanbao , Heishui , Najin , Anding...

 and Solun

Solun (Inner Mongolia)

Solun is town in the Hinggan League, of northeastern Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China, located northwest, by road, of the city of Ulan Hot...

 (in the Hsingan Colonization Area). At Harbin

Harbin

Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...

, however, Nakamura obtained a second "huchao" which, according to the Japanese Consul General, gave the desired permission to travel in the Taonan-Solun area.

Captain Nakamura was accompanied by Nobutarō Isugi, a retired Japanese army sergeant

Sergeant

Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....

, a Mongolian

Mongolian language

The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...

 and a Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 interpreter. Nakamura was travelling incognito, in civilian dress, and represented himself as an "agricultural expert". The party of four left Pokotu on the Chinese Eastern Railway

Chinese Eastern Railway

The Chinese Eastern Railway or was a railway in northeastern China . It connected Chita and the Russian Far East. English-speakers have sometimes referred to this line as the Manchurian Railway...

 about the middle of June, their immediate destination being Taonan. Nakamura made stops along the Chinese Eastern Railway, at Manchuli, Tsitsihar, Angangehi, and Hailar

Hailar

Hailar may refer to:* Hailar River, part of the Russia-China border* Hailar District, district in Inner Mongolia, China...

 taking notes.

On June 27, 1931, the members of the party were arrested by troops loyal to Manchurian warlord

Warlord

A warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...

 Zhang Xueliang

Zhang Xueliang

Zhang Xueliang or Chang Hsüeh-liang , occasionally called Peter Hsueh Liang Chang in English, nicknamed the Young Marshal , was the effective ruler of Manchuria and much of North China after the assassination of his father, Zhang Zuolin, by the Japanese on 4 June 1928...

 under the command of Kuan Yuheng, Commander of the Third Regiment of the Chinese Reclamation Army in Manchuria, outside Taonan, in a place called Suokungfu. According to the Chinese, Nakamura was armed and carried patent medicine

Patent medicine

Patent medicine refers to medical compounds of questionable effectiveness sold under a variety of names and labels. The term "patent medicine" is somewhat of a misnomer because, in most cases, although many of the products were trademarked, they were never patented...

s, which included narcotic drugs for non-medical purposes. He and his assistants were taken to Solun, where they were summarily executed

Summary execution

A summary execution is a variety of execution in which a person is killed on the spot without trial or after a show trial. Summary executions have been practiced by the police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are associated with guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and...

 on July 1 and their bodies immediately cremated to conceal evidence of the deed. The execution may have been ordered because the Chinese had discovered that Nakamura's mission was one of espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 to find water sources and places for encampment for future Japanese military operations in northwest Manchuria.

Consequences

Details of the incident became known to the Japanese public on 17 July 1931. With the news coming soon after the Wanpaoshan Incident

Wanpaoshan Incident

The was a minor dispute between Chinese and Korean farmers which occurred on 1 July 1931, prior to the Mukden Incident. Although the issue was trivial, it was highly sensationalized in the Japanese and Korean press, and used with considerable propaganda effect to increase anti-Chinese sentiment in...

, public opinion was further inflamed, increasing anti-Chinese sentiment in Japan. The Japanese military was quick to capitalize on this upsurge in public opinion to demand a stronger foreign policy against China. Some influential and outspoken officers, including Kanji Ishiwara, demanded that the incident be used as a casus belli

Casus belli

is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while means bellic...

 to enable the Japanese Army to resolve Japan's position in Manchuria. Chinese authorities eventually agreed to investigate the case, and (per the Lytton Report

Lytton Report

was a report generated by a League of Nations commission in December 1931 to try to determine the causes of the Mukden Incident which led to the Empire of Japan’s seizure of Manchuria.- The Commission :The Lytton Commission was headed by V. A. G. R...

) diplomatic progress appeared to be made until the Manchurian Incident later that year.

Nakamura was posthumously awarded the Order of the Golden Kite

Order of the Golden Kite

The ' was an order of the Empire of Japan, established on 12 February 1890 by Emperor Meiji "in commemoration of Jimmu Tennō, the Romulus of Japan."-Background:...

(4th class).

External links

• Nakamura Incident at ibiblio.org