Manchuria (China)

Last modified: 2002-02-23 by phil nelson
Keywords: manchuria | manchukuo | china | orchid |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

• Second World War Japanese puppet state in Manchuria
• Manchuria War Flag/Naval Ensign
• Marine Transport
• Coast Guard
• Shipping Office
• Postal flag

See also:

• Historical Chinese flags
• China

Second World War Japanese puppet State in Manchuria
(1934-1945)

National flag, Civil ensign and war jack

by Mark Sensen, 26 June 1996

Emperor's Flag

by Ivan Sache

In the 30ies and 40ies great parts of China were occupied by the Japanese. During this time several "puppet states" have been established. Manchuria or Manzhouguo (this is the "official" transcription of Chinese used in the PRC, in English it is often written Manchukuo), located in northeast China. It existed between 1932 and 1945. Officially it was an empire under the last Chinese emperor Puyi who used here the name Kangde.
Harald Müller, 11 December 1995

The flag: a yellow field (symbolizing unification), with four horizontal stripes in the upper *right* corner: red (bravery), blue (justice), white (purity) and black (determination).
Bruce Tindall, 09 December 1995

It's interesting that the Manchukuo flag is the Chinese republican one with the yellow taken out and turned into the field. All the references I've seen gave red as being for the Han Chinese. The usual interpretation from the Smith book quoted gives yellow as representing the Manchurians, which would explain its promotion in the Manchukuo flag.
roy stilling, 1995-December-09

The state ensign is the same except that instead of a canton the stripes cover the top 1/3(+/-) of the flag.
Nathan Augustine, 05 December 1995

I've seen another Mandchukuo flag. It was a plain yellow flag with a gold "orchid" flower ( in French "orchidée") in its center. Maybe it was the imperial flag of Emperor Kangte?
Jerome, 06 December 1997

There are plenty flag related interesting things on that period to read in a book called "Chinese Civil Wars 1911-1949" edited by Osprey in the collection "Men at Arms", number 306.

Well, I dont know about that book by Osprey, but I have a book called Flags of All Nations by Smith & Taylor, 1947. This book shows the flag of Manchukuo in color. The flag's field is a mustard-color yellow. The text description calls the field yellow. I would call it mustard color (European mustard, not American, which is real yellow).
Philippe Bondurand, 06 December 1997

Recently on a Discovery documentary I saw a flag in connection with the Japanese takeover of Manchuria. It appeared to be similar to the modern day Georgian flag, except with different coulours. The footage was in B/W but the colours I could make out was a yellow flag with red (or blue) & white in the canton.

Does anyone know wether there was several versions of the Manchurian flag, maybe an early version, or are my perceptions of the flag totally wrong?
Jostein Nygård, 13 July 1998

by Ivan Sache

by Ivan Sache

by Ivan Sache

by Calvin Paige Herring

Postal flag

by Phil Nelson

The flag of Manchoukuo postal system. The postal insignia appears to have been adopted around 15 September 1935 and used until 1945. The insignia represents the Chinese word yu, using however, 2 of the 40 ideographs. In the insignia, the first character of the yu was turned 90 degrees and the second character was made symmetrical so that both the obverse and reverse were identical.
Phil Nelson, 26 January 2000