Black Internationalism and Colored Imperialism

Marc Gallicchio. The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895-1945. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. x + 262 pp. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-8078-2559-x; $17.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8078-4867-8. Reviewed by Roger Chapman Published on H-US-Japan (March, 2002) Black Internationalism and Colored Imperial‐ nate Theodore Roosevelt intervened and encour‐ ism aged both parties to negotiate a peace settlement. On February 9, 1904, the Japanese navy bold‐ If the war had continued, Japan most likely would ly and successfully attacked the Russian Pacific have faced eventual defeat because its resources fleet during nighttime raids at Chemulpo and Port were being stretched too thin. (Over half of Arthur. At stake was what country would domi‐ Japan's annual revenue went into the war effort.) nate China and extract its vast mineral wealth in Russia, although slow and plodding, was capable the Liaotung Peninsula and Manchuria. There of indefinitely adding to its reinforcements in the were a series of battles in which both sides grew Far East. Many commentators do not emphasize weary, but Japan clearly gained the upper hand. enough the advantages Japan had in waging a After a 156-day siege and bombardment, Port war in its own backyard. For Russia, this conflict Arthur was surrendered by Russia in January of was on the extreme periphery of a vast empire. 1905. And then in May the biggest blow came with (From Moscow to Vladivostok the distance is 5,500 the defeat of Russia's Baltic feet (eight battleships, miles or 8,800 kilometers.) Not coincidentally, three cruisers, fve minelayers, and four other Japan initiated its attack in wintertime, when it ships destroyed) in the Tsushima Straits that sepa‐ would be most difficult for Russia to execute an rate Japan and Korea. Excluding the successes of effective response. After all was said and done, Tartars/Mongols of a bygone era, Tsar Nicholas II Russia did indeed have to relinquish territory but is the frst European ruler to lose a war against at the same time it was hardly driven out of the Asians.[1] Even so, the Russo-Japanese War is not area. The Tsar kept his Pacific port at Vladivos‐ the frst time white supremacy was discredited on tock. After the peace settlement, riots broke out in the field of battle.[2] Japan, so bitter and disappointed were its people who after so much sacrifice had gained so little. Although Japan won a tremendous victory, the details are typically blurred. Japan was fortu‐ H-Net Reviews In Marc Gallicchio's book, The African Ameri‐ it should be noted, do not address the African- can Encounter with Japan and China, the Russo- American perception of Japan and China. Gallic‐ Japanese War is a starting point for exploring the chio resumes where Gatewood leaves off at the rise of "black internationalism" in the African- Spanish-American War, while adding information American community. The "Negro reaction" to that precedes the beginning point of Von Eschen's Japan's defeat of Russia was one of amazement study. Von Eschen thinks in the narrower terms of and hope. Since the Japanese were regarded as Pan-Africanism or African-American anticolonial‐ people of color, their wartime exploits had racial ism, but her usage of the designator "colonial in‐ implications.[3] If Japan could defeat Russia, then ternational" seems to be an antecedent of Gallic‐ there was hope for the rest of the non-white chio's "black internationalism."[5] world. If Japan could defeat a European imperial‐ In analyzing how black Americans felt after ist power, then there was hope that people of col‐ the Spanish-American War, Gatewood writes, or everywhere, including in the United States, "Convinced that color prejudice had accompanied might some day overpower white oppression. the American fag to Cuba, the Philippines, and Black activists such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Mar‐ other islands, Negroes preferred to fght their bat‐ cus Garvey came to regard Japan as a potential tles in the familiar environment of their birth...." leader of a worldwide liberation movement for Deeds based on uplift ideology were needed at colored people. After Japan's victory, certain home for a people who after the U.S. Civil War blacks in the United States were "happily dream‐ had been denied their forty acres and a mule. "By ing of color" (p. 32) and predicting "goodbye to 1903 Negroes Americans might still sympathize white domination on both sides of the salt pond" with Filipino aspirations for independence and (p. 34). freedom, but they were convinced that the frst Consequently, during the 1920s African Amer‐ obligation of the American government was to its icans looked to Japan for assistance. Not only was own colored minority," continues Gatewood. "The Japan seen as a symbol of that which destroyed nation's saving hand was needed in taking up the the myth of white power, but it was also regarded black man's burden at home, rather than looking as an advocate at the international level for pro‐ across the sea for more 'little brown brothers.'"[6] moting the rights of blacks and other victims of But after Japan's victory against Russia, some discrimination. Gallicchio adds, "Even if Japan did of the brothers across the sea grew in stature, not directly champion their cause, black interna‐ shows Gallicchio (p. 14). For African Americans, tionalists believed that at the very least Japan's the Russo-Japanese War increased the awareness power would force the American government to of the interconnectivity between white imperial‐ alter its racial policies or face a future race war in ism abroad and the denial of civil rights at home the Pacific" (p. 31). (p. 2). The white man's burden was once again ex‐ Except for the additional focus on China, Gal‐ posed as a justification for imposing racist policies licchio covers much of the same ground as Regi‐ on people of color. Many black Americans felt that nald Kearney, African American Views of the Ja‐ liberation was not going to be achieved in ordi‐ panese: Solidarity or Sedition?[4] Both of these nary ways. But if all people of color would unite works fll in the gap between Willard B. Gate‐ (75 percent of the world), then change could be wood, Jr's Black Americans and the White Man's demanded and new freedom won. If Japan was Burden 1898-1903 and Penny M. Von Eschen's able to defeat white imperialism, then people of Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anti‐ color everywhere could arise and assert their colonialism 1937-1957. Gatewood and Von Eschen, power. Japan was now viewed as a potential sav‐ 2 H-Net Reviews ior. This coincided with white reactionaries who termination and the rights of free people every‐ sounded the alarm over a "Rising Tide of Color" where. This new liberalism, they argued, was not (p. 57). to be applied only to white people. Japan strength‐ Traditionally, the dominant culture in Ameri‐ ened its status in the eyes of black Americans can society has viewed the "Orient" as Other, the when it requested a racial equality clause in the opposite of its own superiority. Whereas China, charter of the League of Nations. In fact, prior to for example, stressed traditionalism, permanency, the gathering at Versailles, African-American equilibrium, and the static, the West regarded it‐ leaders (namely A. Philip Randolph, Ida Wells- self as dynamic, innovative, progressive, and in a Barnett, C. J. Walker, and William Monroe Trotter) state of creative fux. Consequently, the United had lobbied Japanese officials to raise the issue of States, in its relationship to East Asia, has long racial discrimination. The representatives from seen itself as a "redeemer nation."[7] But for Britain and the United States opposed the equality many black Americans, the Russo-Japanese War clause and prevailed in blocking its adoption, discredited such stereotypes. Suddenly Japan was even though a majority of the conference dele‐ cast as the "redeemer nation" for people of color gates had voted for its approval (pp. 3, 20-21, 42, worldwide. Moreover, this was a country that 55-56).[9] could bring inspiration because from the begin‐ But the hopes black Americans had for social ning it had avoided "colonial servitude."[8] gains were soon dashed by a conservative back‐ World War I, Gallicchio points out, strength‐ lash following the war, as seen by the marked in‐ ened the cause of "black internationalism" (pp. 18, crease in lynching (pp. 34-35). In retrospect, it was 31-33). People of color contributed significantly to too much to expect that President Woodrow Wil‐ the Allied victory. The British armed forces in‐ son would usher in a new era of human rights. cluded 1.2 million Indian troops. France utilized The extent of Wilson's racism is noted by his seg‐ 175,000 Africans at the front-line, while over regating the federal government. His white supe‐ 200,000 Chinese and Indochinese served in its la‐ riority complex was further exhibited by his in‐ bor battalions. The United States military called tervening in Latin America more than any other up 367,000 blacks, of which 50,000 were deployed American president, sending troops to Mexico to France. Japan, by patrolling the Pacific, enabled (eleven times), Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, the United States to divert its naval power to the and Panama. A permanent force was kept in Atlantic. Consequently, black Americans felt that Nicaragua. He also sent an expeditionary force to the war experience proved that people of color Russia during the civil war following the Bolshe‐ are indispensable.

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