Japan Sides with African Americans

[The Negro Problem] Kokujin mondai

Kametaro, Mitsukawa

Publication: Tokyo: Niyu Meicho Kankokai, 1925 (Taisho 14).

Notes: An interesting example of Japanese nationalist criticism of American white supremacy in an attempt to weaken the US position abroad and put Japan's militarism on the side of freedom. This trend was set in motion when Japan's proposal to make the principle of racial equality part of the League of Nations charter was voted down by the Western powers. Japanese nationalists began to see the defeat of white supremacy as central to the struggle of "colored" peoples, and they resented (rightly) the personal and legal discrimination faced by Japanese immigrants in the United States.

Kametaro (1888–1936) was particularly interested in the radical Pan Nationalism of Marcus Garvey (Garvey also featured in a 1921 future-history novel by retired general Sato Kojiro in which Black Americans joined forces with the Japanese empire to take power in the United States). This book traces the history of African Americans in the US, from the beginnings of slavery, to the Civil War, Reconstruction, and into the 20th century. Kametaro also devotes a section to lynching.

In Kokujin mondai, Kametaro "enumerated the names of famous Negroes in the world and highly praised their accomplishments and contributions. Among the great names listed were: Crispus Attucks, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Kelley Miller, W.E.B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ira F. Aldridge (a leading Shakespearean actor of the 19th century), Edmonia Lewis (sculptor), Charles Waddell Chesnutt (novelist), Phyllis Whitney (novelist)... Based on the recognition that the next world war would be the war between the Blacks and the Whites, Mitsukawa believed that the (American) Negroes would side with Japan: 'The nursery for race revolution to open up a new era in the world is, without doubt, black Africa. The Japanese people, holding the sun as their ideal and shining on everything on the earth, should hope that seedlings grow from it [black Africa] for the happiness of all mankind.'"—"Historical Context of Black Studies in Japan" by Makoto Tsujiuchi in Hitotsubashi Journal of Social Studies, vol. 30, no. 2. See also "When Japan Was 'Champion of the Darker Races'" by Ernest Allen Jr. in Black Scholar vol. 24, no. 1.

4, 6, 7, 312 pages, 10 unnumbered leaves of plates. The frontispiece design incorporates the Pan-African Flag adopted by Marcus Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

OCLC: 674322939, 1021041004, 20263723. The only recorded US copy is at the Library of Congress.

Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). A very good or better copy in a printed slipcase with old tape repairs. An uncommon book, particularly in the original publisher's slipcase.

Item No: #361018

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