Manchukuo is proclaimed; Puyi becomes Chief Executive. Former Chinese state railways are absorbed into the new Manchukuo National Railway.
Key figures: Puyi (last Qing Emperor, installed as Chief Executive), Zheng Xiaoxu (first Prime Minister), Doihara Kenji (smuggled Puyi out of Tianjin)
Puyi had been living in Japanese-protected exile in Tianjin since his 1912 abdication; his installation gave the new state a veneer of Qing restoration rather than naked Japanese annexation.
Stylized, simplified boundaries. Railway colors show operating ownership, not just physical existence.