In the mid-1930s, the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo was heavily promoted not just in Japan, but in England, the United States, and Germany. Japanese businesses sought foreign investment in Manchukuo, even if full-bore diplomatic recognition was not forthcoming.
There are many, many travelogues to Manchuria in the years from 1933-1937 which extol Japan’s efforts to cleanse Manchuria of bandits, organize rural communities, and promote hygeine and economic development in cities like Harbein, Changchun/Xinjing, Shenyang, and Dalian. And for a somewhat more judicious account, try Edgar Snow’s warmup for Red Star Over China, his 1933 book Far Eastern Front, which includes a venture into the northeast.
It’s likely that one of my historican colleagues has published some literature on the following films, which promote (in English) the most benign portrayal of Manchukuo, calling it “A Newborn Nation”:
and then we have this one from 1938:
The whole reason I got familiar with the above films is as follows: two excerpts read from a British traveller’s journey into Manchukuo in 1933, which center upon his “embedded reporter”-style acccompanying of Japanese punitive patrols into the countryside outside of Shenyang/Mukden, Liaoning province:
Adam Cathcart 