Land Use in North-East China in the 1930s and After.

Land use in much of North-East China in the 1930s has been reconstructed and compared with that of today. North-East China, which was once called Manchuria in Japan or elsewhere, was a place of invasion and colonization by Japan till the end of World War II. This region currently comprises of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang Province and Neimongol Autonomous Region (see Figure 1). The study area corresponds to the territory covered by the 1:100 000 topographic maps produced by Japan in the 1930s, and it covers 81% of Liaonin, 76% of Jilin, 27% (southern part) of Heilongjiang, and 9% (eastern part) of Neimongol. The study area covers the entire Northeast Plain, the Changpai Shan Mountains in the east, and the barren Neimongol arid region in the west.