ManchukuoManchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until 1945. It was founded ostensibly as a republic in 1932 from the lands seized by the Japanese during their invasion of Manchuria, and in 1934 it became a constitutional monarchy still under de facto Japanese control, with the final Emperor of China Puyi as its figurehead.
Empire of JapanThe Empire of Japan or Japanese Empire, also referred to as Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation-state that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the reformed Constitution of Japan in 1947. From 29 August 1910 until 2 September 1945, it administered the naichi (the Japanese archipelago and post-1943 Karafuto) and the gaichi (Korea, Taiwan, Kwantung Leased Territory, and pre-1943 Karafuto). The South Seas Mandate was a single Japanese dependent territory in the name of the League of Nations.
TortureTorture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts carried out by the state, but others include non-state organizations. Torture has been carried out since ancient times. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western countries abolished the official use of torture in the judicial system, but torture continued to be used throughout the world.
