On the university’s Friedrich Wilhelm University-styled campus, Chieh Chien Chang spent three years studying textile engineering until ambitious Japanese military leaders defied the order of more reserved politicians in Japan to stage an incident that resulted in a minor explosion close to a railroad line owned by the Japanese.  This incident provided the Imperial Japanese army with an excuse to open fire on Chinese soldiers camping in the proximity of the university on September 18, 1931. The undeclared battle would be remembered as the Mukden Incident.

After the Mukden Incident, the Japanese army occupied most of Manchuria in three months and established the puppet state of Manchukuo (1932-1945) to replace the warlord administration. For reasons still debated among historians, General Zhang Xueliang, the son of General Zhang Zuolin and ruler of Manchuria, forestalled most attempts of his army to resist the Japanese invasion. Under fire and with profound national humiliation, Chieh Chien Chang escaped the war zone with about six hundred fellow students to continue his studies on the other side of the Great Wall of China. Their destination was the city of Beiping (now Beijing). He started as a student refugee there but soon thrived as a valued young scholar.