Vintage Travel Poster - South Manchuria

The South Manchuria Railway (南滿洲鐵道: Japanese Minamimanshū Tetsudō; Chinese Nánmǎnzhōu Tiědào), officially South Manchuria Railway Company (南滿洲鐵道株式會社 Minamimanshū Tetsudō Kabushikigaisha), or 南鐵 (Mantetsu) for short (Mǎntiě in Chinese), was a large National Policy Company (ja) of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian–Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from 1931 to 1945) corridor in northeastern China, as well as on several branch lines. However, it was also involved in nearly every aspect of the economic, cultural and political life of Manchuria, from power generation to agricultural research, for which reason it was often referred to as "Japan's East India Company in China".