What were conditions like in Manchuria aka Manchuko for the Japanese settlers during the Russian invasion across the Amur River?

Answer 1

I lived in Manchukuo during WWII and evacuated to Japan about one year after the war (1939-1946). I came back to the States in 1948, received PhD in biochemstry, and enjoyed a fruitful life doing research in life science. I revisited the cities I lived in last summer (2007). I was impressed by high-rises every where I went. By the time my family went to Manchukuo, the whole country was under the control of the Japanese military and Southern Manchurian Railroad Company. People lived in peace until the Russian invasion (August 8, 1945) a few days prior to the end of the war (August 15, 1945). I lived in Qiqihar in northern Manchukuo at the end of the war; I was in sixth grade. Our next door neighbor came from Japan one day prior to the Russian invasion; they were refugees from Japan. Russians did not come for at least a week after the war. They were uneducated and rude, and came to our house taking away all the mechanical and electric goods. Electricity and water were shut off; they carried off electric generators and water pumps. Japanese young women dressed in men's cloth to minimize being raped. When they carried off everything that could be move, they left (early spring, 1946). Then the Nationalist Chinese came, but soon the Communists drove them out. When we evacuated, they were still fighting about a midpoint between Chungchun and Shenyang. We had to walk the battle line between the two forces. It took my family (my parents and 4 children) about 40 days to get back to Japan.