 In 1932, the area was incorporated into Manchukuo, a puppet state set up by Japan, and Changchun (then called Hsinking), capital of Jilin today, was made the capital of Manchukuo.After the defeat of Japan in 1945, the region, together with the rest of northeastern China, was handed to the communists by the Soviet Union.Manchuria was then the staging ground from which the communists eventually conquered the rest of China (see Chinese Civil War#Post-war power struggle (1945–1947)).