Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railway and the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway which continued to have different rail gauges, as well as permit licences until 1935. Changchun had railway repair shops, and branch lines originating in Changchun extended into Korea and Inner Mongolia.
An epidemic of pneumonic plague occurred in surrounding Manchuria from 1910 to 1911. Later,[when?] the Japanese established Unit 100 to develop plague biological weapons.[relevant? – discuss]
Manchukuo and World War II
In 1932 the capital of Manchukuo, a Japan-controlled puppet state in Manchuria, was moved to Changchun from Jilin City (Kirin city) (less than 200 km eastward). The city. then known as Hsinking ( pinyin: Xīnjīng; Wade–Giles: Hsin-ching; Japanese: Shinkyō; English trans.: New Capital), a referring to the retreat of the last Qing Dynasty Emperor, Pu Yi, to his homeland in Manchuria, the official cover story used to legitimize Japanese Control inside the nominally independent Manchukuo.[relevant? – discuss][clarification needed] Pu Yi resided in the Imperial Palace which is now the Museum of the Manchu State Imperial Palace (simplified Chinese. During the Manchukuo period, the region experienced harsh suppresion, brutal warfare on the civilian population, forced conscription and labor and other Japanese sponsored government brutalities; at the same time a rapid industrialisation and millitarisaton took place. Hsinking was a well-planned city with broad avenues and modern public works. The city underwent rapid expansion in both its economy and infrastructure. Many of buildings built during the Japanese colonial era still stand today, including those of the Eight Major Bureaus of Manchukuo as well as the Headquarters of the Japanese Kwantung Army.
Construction of Hsinking
Hsinking was the only Direct-controlled municipality in Manchukuo after Harbin was incorporated into the jurisdiction of Binjiang
