It's 1931 in China and the story of the agrarian immigrants begins, an incredible story of when the Japanese tried to colonize Manchuria, they needed resources and they figured Manchuria was the place to get them. Before we start it's a good idea to look at a synopsis that led up to this.

• 1901 - The Russions wanted a route to a warm water port so they created the Chinese Eastern Railway.
• 1904 and 1905 - The Japanese and the Russians go at it in the Russo-Japanese War resulting in a Japanese victory and the Treaty of Portsmouth setting the Japanese into a major power. Japan creates the South Manchuria Railway Zone to take over the railway operations from Russia.
• 1906 - Japan creates the South Manchurian Railway Company to develop settlements and industries in Manchuria. There's a lot of issues with this as the Japanese expand in the area.
• 1931 - Japan is in a depression so the Japanese invasion of Manchuria is seen as a good thing, even though it wasn't approved by the central government. You can read the newpaper account of Civilians soldiers flee Japanese forces in Manchuria. The Japanese then began the Pacification of Manchukuo to try to quell any resistance.
• 1932 - Japan creates the puppet state Manchukuo a monarchy under the control of Japan that had limited international recognition.

A policy was put in place in rural areas to recruit people to take the oath of the agrarian immigrants, sending them to Manchuria to colonize and start farming the area. Propaganda posters were created to entice people to emigrate and they were told a lot of fanciful stories about how great life was going to be in the new promised land. There's an intersting article called The 'New Paradise': Japanese Emigration to Manchuria in the 1930s and 1940s if you can get access.

Japanese children were very much affected by their education and war from 1931 to 1945, the Youth Colonization Volunteer Corps for Manchuria-Mongolia was set up to get the young people involved and they even had a Boy Scouts of Manchukuo. There's an interesting article on jstor if you can get access.

The expansion dreams didn't prevail and it didn't end well for the Japanese that bought into the "Manchurian Lifeline". There's a very interesting photo story of the fate of the Japanese POWs and civilians in China after World War II that you might like.

Through all that there may be a lesson for today in the tragedy of settlers in Manchuria.