African Americans’ Reading of the Far Eastern Crisis, 1931–1937

Abstract • Starting with its occupation of the Chinese city of Mukden, Japan continuously disregarded the post–World War I peace mechanism between 1931 and 1937. Unlike white Americans, who sympathized with China and condemned the encroachment as a crass invasion, mainstream African-American opinion leaders approached the crisis as a righteous, Japanese-led offensive against whites. Yet ironically, this response did not undercut but reinforced the white imperial logic. Not only did prominent African Americans excuse Japan's invasion by citing the precedents of white imperialism and pointing to Japan's modernity; they also considered it beneficial to both Chinese and themselves. Japan emerged through the process as a qualified co-dominator of the nonwhite world while China's color was ignored or erased. This contrast testifies to the apparent constraints of a color-centered reading of the Far Eastern Crisis.