Abstract
Historians have called wartime Japan a racist polity and the Asia-Pacific War a “race war” saturated by “race hate.” Narratives about racial hatred between Westerners and Japanese during the war tend to be predicated on the assumption that propaganda issued by both sides was effective in fostering roughly analogous forms of racial hostility. Given the inseparability of war and hatred generally, one would be surprised if widespread racial enmity did not crystalize between Japan and the Allies, as well as between their respective citizenries. This talk will challenge the “race war” thesis in two ways. First, it will argue that “wartime Japan” was a more ideologically divided polity than is generally recognized. Second, it will use the experiences of resident Eurasians to demonstrate a pervasive racial ambivalence among Japanese citizens.
About the Speaker
W. Puck Brecher specializes in early modern and modern Japanese social and cultural history. His past research projects have focused on early modern Japanese thought, aesthetics, and urban history, as well as contemporary environmental issues. His current research pertains to race relations during the Asia-Pacific War and Japan’s conceptualization of leisure during the Meiji era. He is the author of Honored and Dishonored Guests: Westerners in Wartime Japan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2017), The Aesthetics of Strangeness: Eccentricity and Madness in Early Modern Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2013), and numerous articles.
