Manchuria Heavy IndustriesManchuria Heavy Industries

Map Creator: Ziwei Liu '23, Business

This map shows two major influence of the northeastern China Japan put on after the invasion. One is heavy industrial, the other one is railways construction. The northeastern China was made a base of Pacific War by Japan because of abundant raw materials, especially the minerals. Japanese built companies to exploit minerals like coal, iron, gold and so on, some of which were for military use. And the other part was sent to Japan to satisfy domestic needs. Japanese also built timber industries and hydropower stations along Songhua River and Yalu River because of plentiful forestry and water resources. The railway lines were very dense at that time, but the most important one is South Manchuria Railway built by Japanese in 1937, which connected several important cities of this area and was used to transport products from industries. Many of railways Japan built were repaired and upgraded after the founding of new China in 1945 and then became the national railways.