Air Manchuria - The Army Behind the Mask: Aviation and Nation Building in Wartime Manchuria

FAIN: FT-264784-19

Kathryn B. Meyer
Wright State University (Dayton, OH 45435-0001)

Research and writing leading to publication of a book on Air Manchuria, the commercial airline established by the Japanese Imperial Army as it occupied China's Northeast provinces in 1932.

“Air Manchuria” is the first English language scholarly study of a commercial airline established by the Japanese Imperial Army as they occupied China’s Northeast provinces in 1932. Presenting itself as a multi-national modern Asian nation based on Confucian values, Manchukuo received international condemnation from the start. A commercial airline would underscore modernity and national pride. As a civil enterprise the company faced the same problems that other civil airlines faced in the early days: high prices, fearful customers, and uncomfortable accommodations. It also served a secret military function: logistics, surveillance, and espionage. As a business serving the puppet state it was touted as a mark of legitimacy. This study goes beyond military history. It discusses the use of commerce, leisure, and tourism in the process of state building, in this case a failed state.

Associated Products

Panel 296 Life in Transnational Manchuria: Paper Air Manchuria: The Army Behind the Mask (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Panel 296 Life in Transnational Manchuria: Paper Air Manchuria: The Army Behind the Mask
Author: Kathryn Meyer
Abstract: Air Manchuria: the Army Behind the Mask Kathryn Meyer, Wright State University In 1932 the Japanese sponsored government of Manchukuo created a civilian airline--the Manchuria Aviation Company. Although commercial in nature, Japanese Imperial Army personnel were instrumental in its creation. It functioned as logistical backup to the initial military operations as Manchukuo expanded its boundaries in the years leading up to the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Its pilots were military trained. They flew scouting missions, brought supplies to battlefields, removed the wounded, developed aerial photography techniques, and ferried opium to finance military adventure. The company also promoted its commercial operation at a time when few civilians flew. Articles in the company’s in house monthly magazine, Man Ko describe the experiences of the early days of flight. In doing so the entries reveal the concerns of those creating a new nation. Themes of Manchukuo boosterism and modern Japan versus exotic China come across in the many descriptions promoting air tourism. This paper will examine the rhetoric of modern tourism and Manchukuo nationalism used by the journal even as the airline made its money from military support operations.
Date: 03/23/2019
Primary URL: http://https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-Print-Program.pdf
Primary URL Description: Association for Asian Studies March 21-24, 2019 Conference Denver Colorado Panel 296 Saturday March 23, 2019 Life in Transnational Manchukuo PGovernor’s Square 10, Plaza Building 5:15PM-7:00PM Chaired by Dan Shao, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign Manchukuo’s Literary Frontier: Inter-Ethnic Conflict and the Social World of Luo Binji’s On the Borderline Ed Pulford, Hokkaido University Eliminating the Border?: Smuggling, Boundary Disputes, and Local Resistance to “Manchurian-Korean Unity” along the Yalu River Joseph Seeley, Stanford University Industry, State, and War in Manchukuo: The Case of the Showa Steel Works Koji Hirata, University of Cambridge Air Manchuria: The Army Behind the Mask Kathryn Meyer, Wright State University Discussant: Dan Shao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Conference Name: Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Denver Colorado

---