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Mukden (Shěnyáng; 123.402E
41.801N) was the
capital of Manchuria and hub of
the rail system of southern Manchuria.
It had been at the limit of the zone of Chinese
agricultural settlement since the 8th
century. The Japanese claimed
a concession here at the end of the Russo-Japanese
War of 1905 and hastened industrial development. This included a
huge ordnance
works, claimed to have been second only to Krupp in 1931. There were
two coking plants near the city,
which produced a significant percentage of Japan's coke for steelmaking. The population in 1941 was around 1.1 million persons.
Japanese troops took control of the remainder of
Mukden on the first day of the Manchuria Incident, 18 September 1931.
It would remain firmly under Japanese control until the Russian
intervention of August 1945.
Like most of Manchuria, Mukden experiences extremes of temperature, from subzero in the winter to nearly 90 degrees in a typical summer. Its summer rains are sufficient to support wheat crops.
The airfield based the Kwantung Air Brigade with 36 Ki-57 Topsy transports and the headquarters of 2 Air Division. There was also an airplane plant for Mansyu Hikoki Seizo K.K. which was bombed by 108 B-29s on 7 December 1944. The raid was heavily opposed, with two B-29s lost to midair collisions, one of which was likely a deliberate ramming attack.
The city was occupied by the Russians on 20 August 1945, during their brief offensive in Manchuria.
Climate Information:
Elevation: 141'
Temperatures: Jan 22/-1, Apr 61/37, Jul 87/69, Oct 61/38, record 103/-27
Rainfall: Jan 2/0.3, Apr 5/1.1, Jul 11/7.2, Oct 5/1.4 == 27.9"
References
Craven and Cate (1952; accessed 2012-9-6)
Iriye (1987)
Pearce
and Smith (1990)
Populstat.info (accessed 2014-6-8)
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