As every year, China marked the anniversary of the so-called Mukden incident with patriotic pomp on Sept. 18. Ninety-three years ago, Japanese officers carried out an explosive attack on the South Manchurian Railway in north-eastern China. The incident, for which the Chinese were held responsible at the time, is regarded as the prelude to the Second Sino-Japanese War and thus the Second World War in Asia. In Shenyang in Liaoning province, a brutalist history museum commemorates the historic event.