Description
Book SynopsisBy the end of World War II, many black citizens viewed service in the segregated American armed forces with distaste if not disgust. Meanwhile, domestic racism and Jim Crow, ongoing Asian struggles against European colonialism, and prewar calls for Afro-Asian solidarity had generated considerable black ambivalence toward American military expansion in the Pacific, in particular the impending occupation of Japan. However, over the following decade black military service enabled tens of thousands of African Americans to interact daily with Asian peoplesencounters on a scale impossible prior to 1945. It also encouraged African Americans to share many of the same racialized attitudes toward Asian peoples held by their white counterparts and to identify with their government''s foreign policy objectives in Asia.
In Black Yanks in the Pacific, Michael Cullen Green tells the story of African American engagement with military service in occupied Japan, war-torn South Korea, and
Trade Review
During the decade following WWII, the US embarked upon two great historical journeys—the civil rights movement and the Cold War. In this brief but thought-provoking study, Green examines the interaction of these two forces through the eyes of African American soldiers stationed in postwar Asia.... A fascinating sidelight is Green's examination of the sad fate of African-Asian offspring left behind. A thoughtful, provocative study that skillfully integrates the interplay of domestic and foreign policy. Summing up: Highly recommended.
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Table of ContentsIntroduction: Everyday Racial Politics in a Military Empire
Chapter 1: Reconversion Blues and the Appeal of (Re)Enlistment
Chapter 2: The American Dream in a Prostrate Japan
Chapter 3: The Public Politics of Intimate Affairs
Chapter 4: A Brown Baby Crisis
Chapter 5: The Race of Combat in Korea
Epilogue: Military Desegregation in a Militarized World
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
