to die for the Emperor in battle was the "purest" act a Japanese man could perform. External effect The Western media reported on the events with accounts of atrocities such as bombing civilians or firing upon shell-shocked survivors. It aroused considerable antipathy to Japan, which lasted until the end of World War II. When the Lytton Commission issued a report on the invasion, despite its statements that China had to a certain extent provoked Japan, and China's sovereignty over Manchuria was not absolute, Japan took it as an unacceptable rebuke and withdrew from the already declining League of Nations, which also helped create international isolation. The Manchurian Crisis had a significant negative effect on the moral strength and influence of the League of Nations. As critics had predicted, the League was powerless if a strong nation decided to pursue an aggressive policy against other countries, allowing a country such as Japan to commit blatant aggression without serious consequences. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were also aware of this, and ultimately both followed Japan's example in aggression against their neighbors: in the case of Italy, against Abyssinia; and Germany, against Czechoslovakia and Poland. See also Huanggutun incident (Japanese assassination of the Chinese head of state Generalissimo Zhang Zuolin on 4 June 1928) and the Northeast Flag Replacement (by Zhang Xueliang on 29 December 1928) Chiang Kai-shek Kanji Ishiwara Military of the Republic of China National Revolutionary Army Second Sino-Japanese War References Citations Sources Thorne, Christopher. "Viscount Cecil, the Government and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1931." Historical Journal 14, no. 4 (1971): 805–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638108 online]. Sun, Fengyun. 《東北抗日聯軍鬥爭史》 External links "On The Eastern Front", April 1932, Popular Science photo collection of Invasion of Manchuria and Shanghai International Settlement During the Shanghai Incident "MANCHURIA - What This Is All About", February 1932, Popular Mechanics Solving the "Manchurian Problem": Uchida Yasuya and Japanese Foreign Affairs before the Second World War Japan's "Sole Road for Survival": The Range of Views Within the Guandong Army over the Seizure of Manchuria and Mongolia" International Military Tribunal for the Far East Japanese Aggression Against China Monograph 144, Manchurian Incident Mukden Incident & Manchukuo, WW2 database Manchuria 1931-1932 Photos from the Manchurian campaign AMS Topographic maps of Manchuria Japanese Invasion of Manchuria Photograph Collection Second Sino-Japanese War Conflicts in 1931 Conflicts in 1932 Battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War 1931 in China 1932 in China Military history of