Japan's lightning march across Asia during World War II was swift and
brutal. Nation after nation fell to Japanese soldiers. How were the
Japanese able to justify their occupation of so many Asian nations? And
how did they find supporters in countries they subdued and exploited?
Race War! delves into submerged and forgotten history to reveal how
European racism and colonialism were deftly exploited by the Japanese to
create allies among formerly colonized people of color. Through
interviews and original archival research on five continents, Gerald
Horne shows how race played a key--and hitherto ignored--;role in each
phase of the war.
During the conflict, the Japanese turned white racism on its head
portraying the war as a defense against white domination in the Pacific.
We learn about the reverse racial hierarchy practiced by the Japanese
internment camps, in which whites were placed at the bottom of the totem
pole, under the supervision of Chinese, Korean, and Indian guards--an
embarrassing example of racial payback that was downplayed by the
defeated Japanese and the humiliated Europeans and Euro-Americans.
Focusing on the microcosmic example of Hong Kong but ranging from
colonial India to New Zealand and the shores of the U.S., Gerald Horne
radically retells the story of the war. From racist U.S. propaganda to
Black Nationalist open support of Imperial Japan, information about the
effect of race on U.S. and British policy is revealed for the first
time. This revisionist account of the war draws connections between
General Tojo, Malaysian freedom fighters, and Elijah Muhammed of the
Nation of Islam and shows how white racism encouraged and enabled
Japanese imperialism. In sum, Horne demonstrates that the retreat of
white supremacy was not only driven by the impact of the Cold War and
the energized militancy of Africans and African-Americans but by the
impact of the Pacific War as well, as a chastened U.S. and U.K. moved
vigorously after this conflict to remove the conditions that made
Japan's success possible.
