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 to add some semblance of legitimacy, as he was a former emperor and an ethnic Manchu.
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.
Political parties and movements
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 Militarism-Socialism mould. Such movements, which had official status, were:
Concordia Association (State-sponsored political party)
Northeast Administrative Committee (Manchukuo nationalist local party)
Russian Fascist Organization (the White Russian fascist association in Manchukuo)
White Russian Fascist Party (later the Russian Fascist Party; White Russian anticommunist party in Manchukuo, used the swastika as symbol, guided by a Russian fascist "Duce")
Bureau for Russian Emigrants in Manchuria (BREM) led by General Vladimir Kislitsin
Monarquic Party (White Russian Tsarist Monarchic party with Japanese approval)
Betarim Jew Zionist Movement (Jewish rights movement in Manchukuo)
Far Eastern Jewish Council (Jewish Zionist council in Harbin, Manchukuo led by Dr. Abraham Kaufman, with Japanese Army support)
Aisin Gioro Henry Puyi (Kangde Emperor and head of state)
Elizabeth Wanrong (Empress and first wife of the Kangde Emperor)
Prince Aisin Gioro Pujie (brother of Puyi, possible heir of Manchukuo Throne)
Prince Aisin Gioro Puren (brother of Puyi)
Prince Aisin Gioro Yuyan (nephew of Puyi)
Hiro Saga (Japanese sister-in-law of the Kangde Emperor)
Wenxiu (first concubine of the Emperor)
Tan Yuling (2nd Wife of the Kangde Emperor)
Li Yuqin (4th Wife of the Kangde Emperor)
Princess Aisin Gioro Huisheng (daughter of Pu-Chieh and Hiro Saga)
Princess Aisin Gioro Xianyu (distant relative)
Zheng Xiaoxu, prime minister
Zhang Jinghui, next prime minister until 1945
Xi Xia (Xi Qia), cabinet minister
Ma Zhanshan, former warlord, and cabinet minister
Xie Jishi, cabinet minister
Zang Shiyi, cabinet minister
Zhang Yangqing, cabinet minister
Yu Zhishan, cabinet minister
Yuan Jinkai, cabinet minister
Lü Ronghuan, cabinet minister
Ding Jianxiu, cabinet minister
Li Shaogeng, cabinet minister
Ruan Zhenduo, cabinet minister
Ling Sheng, cabinet minister
Sun Qichang, cabinet minister
Bao Guancheng, Manchukuo's first ambassador in Tokyo
Yuan Cheng-Tse, Manchukuo ambassador in Tokyo
Li Shao-Keng, Manchukuo ambassador in Tokyo
Gen. Tinge, Manchukuo diplomat in Tokyo
(Commanders)
Shigeru Honjō (1 August 1931 – 8 August 1932)
Nobuyoshi Mutō (8 August 1932 – 27 July 1933)
Takashi Hishikari (29 July 1933 – 10 December 1934)
Jirō Minami (10 December 1934 – 6 March 1936)
Kenkichi Ueda (6 March 1936 – 7 September 1939)
Yoshijirō Umezu (7 September 1939 – 18 July 1944)
Otozō Yamada (18 July 1944 – 11 August 1945)
(Chief of Staff)
Koji Miyake (10 August 1928 – 8 August 1932)
Kuniaki Koiso (8 August 1932 – 5 March 1934)
Juzo Nishio (5 March 1934 – 23 March 1936)
Seishirō Itagaki (23 March 1936 – 1 March 1937)
Hideki Tōjō (1 March 1937 – 30 May 1938)
Rensuke Isogai (18 June 1938 – 7 September 1939)
Jo Iimura (7 September 1939 – 22 October 1940)
Heitarō Kimura (22 October 1940 – 10 April 1941)
Teiichi Yoshimoto (10 April 1941 – 1 August 1942)
Yukio Kasahara (1 August 1942 – 7 April 1945)
Hikosaburo Hata (7 April 1945 – 11 August 1945)
Chu Kudo, Chamberlain, aide-de-camp to Emperor Puyi
Chiune Sugihara, Vice Foreign Minister
Hoshino Naoki, Vice Minister of Finance
Kenji Doihara, Japanese spymaster and military commander
Norihiro Yasue, Army officer, author of the Fugu Plan
Koreshige Inuzuka, Navy officer, co-author of the Fugu Plan
Masahiko Amakasu, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs and head of Manchukuo Film Association
Yoshisuke Aikawa, prominent industrialist
Tatsunosuke Takasaki, prominent businessman
Toranosuke Hashimoto, State Shinto head priest
Yanagida Genzo, Commander, Kwantung Defense Command
Genrikh Lyushkov, ex-Soviet Far East NKVD defector, adviser to Kwantung Army
Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky, White Russian anticommunist leader
General Kislitsin, another White Russian anticommunist chief
Abraham Kaufman, founder of Far Eastern Jewish Council and Betarim Jew Zionists Movement
Trebitsch Lincoln, Hungarian pro-Japanese collaborator
August Ponschab, German consul in Harbin, Manchuria
Auguste Ernest Pierre Gaspais, Vatican representative in Harbin, Manchuria
Charles Lemaire, Vatican diplomatic officer in Harbin, Manchuria
Lian Yu, Nanjing Nationalist Government ambassador
