Edinburgh East Asian Studies : EEAS. 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. Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: The Japanese Racial Anomaly Part I: Race in the Japanese Context: Early Modern Patterns of Differentiation and the Introduction of Race in Modern Japan Chapter 1 Patterns of Differentiation in Early Modern Japan Chapter 2 The Translation of Race in the Meiji Period Part II: A Racial Middle Ground: Negotiating the Japanese Racial Identity in the Context of White Supremacy Chapter 3 Between Two Races – The Birth of the Racial Middle Ground between Japan and the West Chapter 4 Two Wars and First Successes: From the Port Arthur Massacre to the Treaty of Portsmouth Chapter 5 Further Successes and the Limits of the Racial Middle Ground – The California Crisis Chapter 6 African Americans and the Racial Middle Ground Chapter 7 The End of the Racial Middle Ground Conclusion: The Elusive Japanese Race References Index