Wanpaoshan was a small village some 18 miles north of Changchun, in Manchuria, in a low marshy area alongside the Itung river.

A group of ethnic Koreans (who were regarded at the time as subjects of the Japanese Empire) subleased a large tract of land from a local Chinese broker and prepared to irrigate by digging a ditch several kilometers long, extending from the Itung river across a tract of land not included in their lease and occupied by local Chinese farmers.

After a considerable length of the ditch had been dug, the Chinese farmers protested to the Wanpaoshan local authorities, who dispatched police and ordered the Koreans to cease construction at once and leave the area.

The Chinese farmers withdrew, and the Japanese police remained on the spot until the Koreans completed the ditch and a dam across the Itung River.

[1] Far more serious than the minor affair between farmers in Manchuria was the public reaction once either false or highly sensationalized accounts of the conflict were published in Japanese and Korean newspapers.

They also held that the Koreans had undertaken their project in good faith and blamed any irregularities on the Chinese broker who arranged the lease.