……Controversy
Different opinions still exist as to who blew up the Japanese railroad at Mukden. Although the most common view is that it was the Japanese military, as established in the post war tribunals, and there is also the views that it was done by Chinese and this cannot be known due to a lack of historical evidence.

Despite the strong evidence points to Japan's Kwantung Army as conspiring to cause the blast. While most members of the Japanese military have denied planting the bomb, Major Hanaya of the army has confessed that the bomb was planted and the incident staged by them. Post war investigations also reviewed that the origin of the bomb planted by Japanese failed to explode and a replacement had to be plant. The resulting explosion enabled the Japanese Kwantung Army accomplished their goal of the invasion of Manchuria and the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo.

The 9.18 Incident Exhibition Museum at Shenyang, opened by the People's Republic of China, takes the position that the explosives were planted by Japan. However, just like the Holocaust denial, the nationalistic Japanese establishment such Yasukuni Shrine Yushukan Museum, which neighbors Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, places the blame on Chinese militias. This was just one of the Japanese denials of its past war crimes that prompt protests from the countries victimized by the Japanese aggression in the past, and the Japanese governmental response was always the same, claiming that such views are not the official views of the Japanese goverment. ……