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The Allure of Empire traces how American ideas about race in the Pacific were made and remade on the imperial stage and how these ideas shaped US foreign and immigration policies before World War II. It examines how the United States emerged as a Pacific power by collaborating with Japan to maintain an imperial order across the Pacific and how this cooperation depended on positive assessment of Japan's colonial rule of Japan.
List of contents
- Note on Romanization
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Seeing Race Beyond the Color Line
- Chapter 1: Empires of Reform: The United States, Japan, and the End of Korean Sovereignty, 1904-1905
- Chapter 2: Between Empire and Exclusion: The Professional Class at the Helm of Anti-Japanese Politics, 1905-1915
- Chapter 3: Uplifting the "Subject Races": American Missionary Diplomacy and the Politics of Comparative Racialization, 1905-1919
- Chapter 4: Empires of Exclusion: The Abrogation of the Gentlemen's Agreement, 1919-1924
- Chapter 5: Faith in Facts: The Institute of Pacific Relations and the Quest for International Peace, 1925-1933
- Chapter 6: Toward a New Order: The End of the Inter-Imperial Relationship across the Color Line, 1933-1941
- Epilogue: The World Empires Made
- Note on Sources and Abbreviations
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Chris Suh is Assistant Professor of History at Emory University.
Summary
The Allure of Empire traces how American ideas about race in the Pacific were made and remade on the imperial stage before World War II. Following the Russo-Japanese War, the United States cultivated an amicable relationship with Japan based on the belief that it was a "progressive" empire akin to its own. Even as the two nations competed for influence in Asia and clashed over immigration issues in the American West, the mutual respect for empire sustained their transpacific cooperation until Pearl Harbor, when both sides disavowed their history of collaboration and cast each other as incompatible enemies.
In recovering this lost history, Chris Suh reveals the surprising extent to which debates about Korea shaped the politics of interracial cooperation. American recognition of Japan as a suitable partner depended in part on a positive assessment of its colonial rule of Korea. It was not until news of Japan's violent suppression of Koreans soured this perception that the exclusion of Japanese immigrants became possible in the United States. Central to these shifts in opinion was the cooperation of various Asian elites aspiring to inclusion in a "progressive" American empire. By examining how Korean, Japanese, and other nonwhite groups appealed to the United States, this book demonstrates that the imperial order sustained itself through a particular form of interracial collaboration that did not disturb the existing racial hierarchy.
Additional text
Chris Suh's masterful book follows the Pacific nations, especially Japan, the United States, and colonies over two centuries framed by the 'Yellow Peril.' Suh's narrative addresses elaborate ideologies, racial hierarchy, politics, and diplomacy.
