Facing the Rising Sun

by Gerald Horne

  to such an extent that the Japanese have been blamed for inflating international prices by their high auction bids. . . . 1946 saw the first issue of Swing Journal, Japan’s leading jazz periodical and, by the 1970s, the most impressive jazz magazine anywhere. . . . Pianist Hampton Hawes [African American] also a soldier was stationed in Japan in 1953–1954 and helped the young Toshiko Akiyoshi, later to become an internationally known pianist and leader of one of the top big bands of the 1970s.

  77 Senator Eastland to Senator-elect S. I. Hayakawa, 15 November 1976, File 1, Sub-Series 18, Box 5, James Eastland Papers, University of Mississippi, Oxford.

  78 Report by Senator Hayakawa, 1 August 1978, File 1, Sub-Series 18, Box 5, James Eastland Papers.

  79 “Linguist, Former Sen. S. I. Hayakawa,” Chicago Tribune, 28 February 1992, Section 2, 9. This unseemly attitude was something of a turnabout for Hayakawa, who as a regular columnist for the Chicago Defender—which catered to Negro readers—expressed grave reservations about the internment as the war unfolded. See, e.g., S. I. Hayakawa, “Second Thoughts: Negroes and Japanese,” Chicago Defender, 16 December 1944, 13. He recounted a vignette about how “none of their white fellow-passengers” traveling by train in 1942 alongside Japanese Americans headed to Chicago “knew about this relocation,” while “there was hardly a single Negro porter or dining-car waiter who did not know about this enormous mass expulsion. . . . Many Japanese Americans, expelled from their homes, found their first friends in the outside world among Negroes.”

  80 Release, ANP, November 1957, Reel 64, #125, Part I, Press Releases.

  81 Release, ANP, September 1958, Reel 66, #300, Part I, Series B.

  82 Release, ANP, Reel 80, #387, Part I, Series C. See also Terese Svoboda, Black Glasses Like Clark Kent: A GI’s Secret from Postwar Japan (St. Paul, MN: Graywolf, 2008), 12.

  83 Release, ANP, October 1957, Reel 63, #950, Part I, Press Releases.

  84 Release, ANP, February 1952, Reel 47, #1104, Part I, Series B. See also Almena Lomax, “4 Scions of State’s Pioneer Japanese,” San Francisco Chronicle, 23 August 1970, Section B, 6: “Four Sacramento Negroes and their offspring have been found to be the only known descendants in Northern California, perhaps the country, of the first Japanese settlers in America.” The article noted a “tradition of inter-mingling between Negroes and Japanese which has been closer for Negro relations than with any other of America’s minorities except the Indian.” During the Jim Crow era, those of Japanese ancestry “even joined Negroes in such civil rights actions as the suits to outlaw restrictive covenants in housing. Negroes could always stay in Japanese hotels and eat in Japanese cafes when otherwise barred.”

  85 Release, ANP, March 1960, Reel 69, #1076, Part I, Press Releases.

  86 Release, ANP, May 1964, Reel 82, #500, Part I, Series C.

  87 Release, ANP, March 1956, Reel 59, #742, Part I, Series B. On the question of babies fathered in Japan by African American soldiers there, see, e.g., James McGrath Morris, Eyes on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press (New York: HarperCollins, 2015), 64–66. Of course, white supremacists were far more upset by the fact that Negro soldiers were fathering children in Europe: see “G.I. Joe” to “My Dear Sir,” circa 1940s, Box 1067, Bilbo Papers. The correspondent attached a clipping detailing “babies fathered by Negro troops,” a reality that tended to “arouse the British.” The note added, “watch your blood pressure” when contemplating this. One U.S. national was disgusted to find that “our Negro soldiers are passing themselves off to English and Australian girls as North American Indians and being intimate with them” in a “disgraceful” display: C. Dale Campo to Senator Bilbo, 12 January 1945, Box 1067, Bilbo Papers.

  88 Robert L. Bennett to “Dear Folks,” 6 January 1946, Robert L. Bennett Letters.

  89 “Immigration and Nationality Act, October 3, 1965,” in Odo, The Columbia Documentary History, 350–54. As Tokyo-Washington relations deteriorated, African Americans were not left unaffected. Thus, by 1991 as a kind of “Ja-panic” descended in the United States amidst news items about this Asian nation surpassing the North American behemoth economically, the NAACP chapter in Silver Spring, Maryland, sought to organize a protest at the Japanese embassy. Branch leader Leroy W. Warren Jr. charged that “Japanese entities practice unfair trading and locate their plants away from locations with a substantial number of people of color.” See Leroy W. Warren Jr. to Dr. William F. Gibson, Chair of NAACP Board of Directors, 6 January 1991, Box 6, Folder 9, Kelly M. Alexander, Jr. Papers, University of North Carolina, Charlotte. For sixty days the NAACP maintained an “informational picket line at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C.,” in light of the foregoing charge and a controversy involving “a series of racial insults from high-ranking Japanese officials.” See Benjamin L. Hooks to NAACP Board, 12 February 1991, Box 6, Folder 9, Kelly M. Alexander, Jr. Papers. African Americans’ relations with the former whipping boy that was China also fluctuated as Washington’s foreign policy evolved. During the 1975 crisis over the U.S. role in seeking to circumvent independence for Angola, a number of African Americans sided with their homeland—and apartheid South Africa—since Maoist China was their new beacon and the United States opposed the triumphant African faction because it was supported by Beijing’s (and Washington’s and Pretoria’s) antagonist in Moscow. See, e.g., The Facts on Angola (New York: National Anti-Imperialist Movement in Solidarity with African Liberation, 1976), Schomburg Center, New York Public Library. This publication was produced by the author of this book. However, by the early twenty-first century, as China’s economic growth made headlines, China was being referred to routinely by many African Americans as the “new colonialist” in Africa. See, e.g., Howard French, China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa (New York: Knopf, 2014). The alert reader would not be mistaken in drawing the inference that a by-product of the kind of citizenship bestowed upon African Americans in recent decades has been a closer identification of this oft besieged group with Washington—and opposition to its antagonist du jour. I do not think this trend will end well. See, e.g., Philip S. Golub, East Asia’s Reemergence (Malden, MA: Polity, 2016).

  90 Horne, Fighting in Paradise.

  91 Release, ANP, April 1949, Reel 40, #411, Part I, Series B.

  92 Release, ANP, August 1960, Reel 71, #225, Part I, Series C.

  93 Peggy Noonan, “A Flawed Report’s Important Lessons,” Wall Street Journal, 12 December 2014.

  94 See, e.g., Horne, Blows against the Empire. As suggested in this earlier book, I believe that even if Washington is able to impose upon China the fate endured by the Soviet Union—ouster of Communists from power accompanied by destabilization—this could only be done by boosting Tokyo and New Delhi in order to encircle Beijing, guaranteeing that Japan and India, whose ties stretch back to the founding of Buddhism 2,500 years ago, would emerge as a future duopoly, to the detriment of the United States.

  95 Hugh H. Smythe, “A Note on Racialism in Japan,” 823.

  96 Smythe and Smythe, “Report from Japan,” 161. See also Van Vleet, “Once a Jap, Always a Jap.” In this presumed conversation with a Japanese patriot before August 1945, the author claims that his interlocutor said, “Some day” after the war, “mebbe fifty year, mebbe one hundred year—Japanese kill all white man. Then Japanese Emperor make white woman marry Japanese man, make white woman have big family. . . . Japan help Germany lick the United States and then Japan probably hafta lick Germany.” Cf. Joanne Miyang Cho, Lee M. Roberts, and Christian W. Spang, eds., Transnational Encounters between Germany and Japan: Perceptions of Partnership in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (New York: Palgrave, 2016).

  Index

  Abyssinia. See Ethiopia

  Abyssinians, 41–42

  Adams, Sherman, 145–46

  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 41–56, 68

  Africa, 29–30, 47, 74–75, 79, 147, 157; China as new colonialist in, 211n89; Great Britain in, 42–43, 55; Mosc
ow assuming moral leadership in, 72; repatriation to, 19–22, 152–53, 172n49; white supremacy strengthened by, 92

  African Americans. See specific topics

  Africans, 6–7, 8, 18–19, 26, 91, 111; Asians conflated with, 30; Asiatic Black Man produced by, 30; Euro-Americans subjugating, 25

  Afro-America, 126–27

  Afro-Asian solidarity. See specific topics

  Alabama, 14, 27, 43, 118, 137, 138–39; Tuskegee in, 143

  Alejandrino, Jose, 28, 36

  Alexander, Raymond Pace, 164–65

  Alexandria, Louisiana, 127–29

  Ali, Duse Mohammed, 46–47

  Allah Temple of Islam, 12, 13, 49–50, 84

  American Indians. See Native Americans

  Americans. See Euro-Americans

  American South. See Southern U.S.

  Anglo-American-centered peace, 38–49

  ANP. See Associated Negro Press

  anti-Tokyo movement, 31–32

  antiwar activists, 14–15

  apartheid, 119–20, 151, 156–57, 159

  Arizona, 73, 126–27, 129

  Arkansas, 3, 9, 40, 62–63, 133

  Army, U.S., 79, 83, 130, 135, 159, 198n60; Air Corps, 118, 136–41; Air Force, 143; Temple of Islam member joining, 102–3; War College, 131

  Ashe, Charles, 99, 100

  Asia, 9, 42, 47, 72, 75, 165; British in, 6–7, 55, 182n41; White, Walter, in, 157–58; white domination in, 51, 74; WWII in, 172n54

  Asians, 9, 26, 29–30, 46, 73–74, 164–65; bias against, 39; California dominated by, 44; labor, 32; racial polarization influencing, 45; Tokyo toughening, 51; as white, 152. See also Asiatics; Filipinos; Japanese

  Asia-Pacific region, 1, 30, 90–91. See also Pacific War

  Asiatic Black Man, 36, 81, 84, 94, 102, 147; Africans producing, 30; Asians producing, 30; NOI popularizing, 48–50

  Asiatics, 5–6, 9, 17, 18–19, 35, 58; Black Nationalists as, 94, 147; as citizens, 100; Japanese fighting for, 106; race, 49–50

  Associated Negro Press (ANP), 55, 72, 74, 85–86, 90–91, 120; in France, 142–43; on Japanese, 160; overview of, 170n28; on pilots, 136; on Selfridge Field, 140; Tokyo striking, 151. See also Barnett, Claude A.

  Australia, 38, 134–35, 156, 159

  Axis propaganda, 122–23

  Back-to-Africa Movement, 21–22, 41–42, 67–68

  Baker, Josephine, 161–62

  Baker, William, 59–60

  Bamber Bridge, 141–42

  Barnett, Claude A., 18, 58, 67, 69, 124, 130; Acheson telling, 150; on internment, 145

  Barnett, Pearl. See Sherrod, Pearl

  Bataan, 10, 167n7

  Bates-Bey, Cash C., 81–82

  Bayen, Malaku, 53, 68

  Beijing, China, 94, 211n89, 212n94

  Bennett, Robert L., 144, 155, 163, 203n15

  Berlin, Germany, 14, 21, 37, 73, 90, 119; Tokyo influenced by, 38, 47–48, 93; Washington, D.C., outflanked by, 178n121

  Biddle, Francis, 18, 122

  Bilbo, Theodore, 19–22, 67, 79, 91–93, 102; on black races, 151; on California, 152; Coleman to, 177n105; Cooks to, 178n113; to Duncan, 177n100; Edgar to, 178n121; Garvey influencing, 178n114; Gordon telling, 74–75, 178n109, 192n87, 192n88; Gregory informing, 154–55; on Japanese, 193n1; Johnson, D., to, 192n87; Larremore pressing, 126–27; Lyn to, 178n114; McComb told about to, 106; Rose to, 192n87; Stewart to, 177n105; Wade writing to, 106–7; on white races, 151; white supremacy fought for by, 151–54

  Birmingham, Alabama, 43, 138

  Black Dragon Society, 7, 12–13, 57, 58, 76; colored people influenced by, 126; Japanese Americans trained by, 174n83

  Black Nationalists, 153; as Africans, 18–19; Allah Temple of Islam as, 12, 13, 49–50, 84; as Asiatics, 18–19, 94, 147; China hostility of, 22, 186n51; Cooks as, 20, 97, 178n113; EPM as, 13, 53, 84, 85, 95–97; Ethiopia buoying, 53–56, 76; Fagen as harbinger of, 28; Japanese invoking rhetoric of, 6; overview of, 6–23; PME as, 76–80, 97, 100, 101–2, 172n49, 177n100; Wheaton as, 158–59. See also Asiatic Black Man; Garvey, Marcus; Gordon, Mittie Maude Lena; Malcolm X; Moorish Science Temple; Nation of Islam; Pacific Movement of the Eastern World; Universal Negro Improvement Association

  Blakey, Art, 210n76

  Blanton, Barry, 112–13

  Blytheville, Arkansas, 62–63

  Bogans, Gulan. See Mohammed, Elijah

  Bombay, India, 156–57

  Boraster, Ethelbert Anself, 3, 95, 98

  Boston, Massachusetts, 29, 73

  Branch, K. D., 108–9, 116

  Brant, G. C., 137–38

  Brazil, 46, 63, 110, 115; Japanese in, 8, 98, 199n7; Takis on, 98

  Bridges, Styles, 145–46

  Britain. See Great Britain

  British, 37, 42–43, 80, 99, 141–42, 143; in Asia, 6–7, 55, 72, 182n41

  British Canadians, 91

  British Guiana, 56, 84

  British India, 48

  Brooklyn, 2–3, 97

  Brown, Pink, 61–62

  brown Americans, 130–46

  brown Japanese, 130–46

  Bryan, Leon S., 135–36

  Buck, Frank, 118–19

  Buddha, 48, 86

  Buddhism, 70–71, 212n94

  Bunche, Ralph, 160, 170n33

  Burma, 8, 99, 143

  Butler, Lee, 59–60, 63–64, 97, 108, 112–18, 119

  Cairo, Illinois, 7, 98, 99–100, 106, 117, 138

  California, 9, 31–32, 34–36, 44, 45, 46; anti-Tokyo bias of, 42–43; Bilbo on, 152; Butoku-Kai societies in, 174n83; Erwin visiting, 109; Filipinos in, 130; Hitler influencing, 207n21; Japanese Americans influencing, 87, 123–27, 145, 152, 207n21, 211n84; Krause lamenting, 152–53; Mexicans imported into, 124; Oakland in, 47. See also Los Angeles, California; San Francisco, California

  Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, 132–33

  Canadians, 86, 91

  Caribbean, 13, 80

  Centerville, Mississippi, 106–7, 198n60

  Chicago, Illinois, 2, 12, 48–49, 100–106, 107, 169n21; Abyssinians arriving at, 41–42; Gordon as of, 20, 21, 67; Hughes, L., reminding, 14–15; Japanese in, 153–54, 210n79; journalist, 36; Muhammad sentenced in, 105; PMEW organized in, 58; as propaganda site, 47

  Chiles, Nick, 35–36

  China, 12, 22, 47, 135, 165, 186n51; as Africa’s new colonialist, 211n89; alliance with, 73; attitudes favoring, 74; Euro-Americans in, 71, 169n23; Japanese incursions into, 37, 42–43, 50–51, 52, 69, 73–74, 110, 191n50; lynching reacted to by, 71–72; Manchuria in, 11, 51; Pickens on, 61; Shanghai in, 43, 51, 71; Tokyo assaulting, 25; Washington, D.C.’s entente with, 94, 211n89, 212n94; Wheaton defecting to, 159; white soldiers invading, 145–46

  Chinese, 26, 73–74, 75, 121–22, 126, 155; press mentioning, 186n51; racial prejudice overthrown by, 192n83; racism used by, 158–59

  Chinese Americans, 73–74, 130

  Chinese Students Club, 73–74

  Christianity, 79–80, 83, 86, 206n8

  Civil Rights Congress (CRC), 147–48

  Civil War, U.S., 18, 25, 26, 89, 137; attorney general on, 44; South after, 141

  Cleveland, Ohio, 16, 19–20, 36, 86

  Cold War, 18, 149, 160

  Colored American National Organization, 103–4

  Columbia University, 1–2

  Columbus, Ohio, 119–20

  Communism, 145, 152–53

  Communist Party (CP), 11, 12–14, 68–69, 73, 84, 119; China ruled by, 165; propaganda, 89

  Communists, 6, 14, 22, 55, 160–61, 212n94; handbook, 62; propaganda, 158–59

  Confederate States of America (CSA), 27–28

  Constitution, U.S., 123–24

  Cooks, Carlos, 20, 97, 178n113

  Cox, Earnest Sevier, 67, 172n49

  CP. See Communist Party

  CRC. See Civil Rights Congress

  CSA. See Confederate States of America

  Davis, Frank Marshall, 91, 119, 164

  Deep South, 35–36

  De Guzman, Mimo. See Manansala, Poli
carpio; Takis, Ashima

  Demena, 64–65

  Detroit, Michigan, 12, 13, 48–50, 88–89, 108

  The Development of Our Own (TDOO), 13, 50

  Dies, Martin, 87–89

  Diet, 44, 45

  Dixie. See Southern U.S.

  Dixie, Indiana, 8–9

  Dixiecrats, 19–22, 27–28. See also Bilbo, Theodore

  Dower, John, 5, 8–9, 172n54

  draft dodgers, 3, 15, 95–111

  Du Bois, W. E. B., 3–4, 30, 48, 69, 71, 149; in Indonesia, 150; Moscow attraction of, 156; on Russia, 191n50

  Dunbar, Rudolph, 142–43

  Dunson, T. C., 5–6

  Eads Bridge, 8, 109, 112, 114

  East Indians, 84, 86

  East St. Louis, Illinois, 3, 4, 8, 9, 13, 59–66; Chanute Air Force Base influenced by, 138; FBI told in, 88–89; grand jury in, 112–18; Jackson spreading ripples to, 106; Pacific War influencing, 155; PMEW in, 97–99; St. Louis and, 107–11; Sikeston in vicinity of, 99–100; South America migrated to from, 199n7; trial in, 112–19

  Edgar, Joseph, 21, 92, 178n121

  England, 63, 72

  EPM. See Ethiopia Pacific Movement

  Erwin, David D., 59, 62–63, 64–65, 97, 108, 109; grand jury preceding trial of, 112–18; trial of, 119

  Ethiopia, 11, 15–16, 41–56, 64, 66–67, 68; Black Nationalists buoyed by, 76; Huggins in, 70; Huks’ solidarity with, 157; Thompson on, 80

  Ethiopian World Federation (EWF), 59, 67, 190n38

  Ethiopia Pacific Movement (EPM), 13, 53, 84, 85, 95–97

  Euro-Americans, 2–3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 17; Africans subjugated by, 25; Asia ouster of, 75; Browne on, 149; business competition eliminated by, 123; in China, 71, 169n23; colonialism, 50–51; evacuation caused by, 123; Fagen guarding, 28; on Japanese, 121, 165; on Japanese Americans, 207n21; lynching worries of, 168n15; military attacks of, 29; Philippines ouster of, 75; Plan of San Diego liquidating, 37; police officers, 41–42; race war motivating, 14; racial correlation of forces, concern of, 44; Shanghai disrupted by, 43; soldiers, 128–29; Southern standards conformed to by, 140; Tokyo spied for by, 87; working class, 64; WWII influencing, 103