| abstract | - After the Xinhai Revolution of 1912 overthrew the Qing Dynasty in China, the last Qung Emperor, Puyi, continued to live in the Forbidden City in Beijing. He was expelled by the warlord Feng Yuxiang in 1924, and found refuge within the extraterritorial Japanese concession in Tianjin. In 1931, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Manchuria without prior authorization from either the Imperial General Headquarters or the civilian government in Tokyo. After quickly overrunning the territory, and carving out a new state theoretically independent of Japan, the Japanese Army needed to find symbols of legitimacy, whereby the new state would be accorded international diplomatic recognition. Restoration of Puyi to the throne of his Manchu ancestors provided one such symbol, and emphasized Japan's stance in favor of tradition over communism and republicanism, and had tremendous propaganda value.
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