Japanese Racial Identities within U.S.-Japan Relations, 1853-1919

Considers: Did race really matter? Racial ideology and political pragmatism in U.S.-Japan relations

• Breaks up the traditional dichotomic view of race relations
• Employs a new and more functional theoretical approach to understand the negotiated quality of not only the Japanese racial identity, but also of racial identities in general
• Firmly anchors Japanese history in a global framework
• Introduces a wide array of new Japanese sources particularly on the topic of Japanese and African American relations

This book retraces the process through which, at the turn of the twentieth century, the Japanese went from a racial anomaly to honorary members of the White race. It explores the interpretation of the Japanese race by Western powers, particularly the United States, during Japan’s ascension as a great power between 1853 and 1919. Forced to cope with this new element in the Far East, Western nations such as the U.S. had to device a negotiation zone in which they could accommodate the Japanese and negotiate their racial identity. In this book, Tarik Merida, presents a new tool to study this process of negotiation: the Racial Middle Ground.