Puppet sovereignty: The state effect of Manchukuo, from 1932 to 1936

Manchukuo was a puppet state which claimed, eventually to be a 'sovereign' state. Manchukuo was created in 1932 in Manchuria, the northeastern region of China, by the Kwantung Army (the Japanese garrison army stationed there) after the army had waged a war against the Chinese warlord regime and expelled it (the Mukden Incident). My project is the history of Manchukuo in its early period (between its foundation and the Sino-Japanese War), focusing on the process of constructing a colonial state and exploring its "sovereign" state effect. My general question is why the colonial state became autonomous and how. The colonial state is fundamentally a "rule of difference", representing the 'other' as inferior. In both the European and Japanese colonial experiences, the others were seen only as objects, not as subjects by alien rulers.;The period of early Manchukuo, however, was different. People were called guomin (citizens) and warmly cared for even as the Japanese waged several undeclared wars against the KMT in North China in early thirties. The Japanese leaders of the government were very hegemonic and allotted a significant share of positions in the bureaucracy and business to the indigenous people. The colonial state became an impartial arbiter between its 'citizens' (Chinese) and 'foreigners' (Japanese settlers) and sometimes restrained the interest of the latter. The colonial state also took great pains in regards to the invention of tradition. The early Manchukuo project suggests that there are different periodizations for colonial states with their own rhythms and that even a colonial state has a productive concern on its subjects (called colonial governmentality), and that a colonial state also has peculiarities which modern states have developed, namely disciplinary power and a distinct method to appear to exist.