Description
Book SynopsisIn
The End of Pax Americana, Naoki Sakai focuses on U.S. hegemony''s long history in East Asia and the effects of its decline on contemporary conceptions of internationality. Engaging with themes of nationality in conjunction with internationality, the civilizational construction of differences between East and West, and empire and decolonization, Sakai focuses on the formation of a nationalism of hikikomori, or “reclusive withdrawal”—Japan’s increasingly inward-looking tendency since the late 1990s, named for the phenomenon of the nation’s young people sequestering themselves from public life. Sakai argues that the exhaustion of Pax Americana and the post--World War II international order—under which Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and China experienced rapid modernization through consumer capitalism and a media revolution—signals neither the “decline of the West” nor the rise of the East, but, rather a dislocation and decen
Trade Review“This is a masterful and brilliant account of the rise and fall of the Pax Americana from the perspective of Japan and northeast Asia. Working through and beyond the pitfalls and shortcomings of area studies, Naoki Sakai opens new and often unexpected angles on racism, nationalism, and the nation form in a time of transition. There is much to learn from this book, on Japan and northeast Asia, but more generally on the world we live in.” -- Sandro Mezzadra, University of Bologna
“Ranging widely across texts, languages, times (conventionally understood as the premodern and the modern), and places (typically called ‘Asia’ and ‘the West’), these essays interrogate the bordering practices of knowledge production about areas while demonstrating how rethinking modernity through Japan may enable ethically engaged and concretely situated critiques of nationalism, imperialism, racism, sexism, violence, humanism, and more across the globe. A singular and timely achievement from one of our most learned, theoretically rigorous, and profound thinkers.” -- Takashi Fujitani, author of * Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II *
"For those who want to push area studies and Japan studies to their limits and to finally pose real problems instead of offering paltry solutions in the world of ideology,
The End of Pax Americana can inspire us to theorize new problems for research in the humanities and the social sciences that not only interpret the reality of our present conjuncture but that seek to change it." -- Ken C. Kawashima * Journal of Japanese Studies *
"True to the critical theory tradition, the book is sure to provoke many thoughts, especially regarding what roles Japan might play as the US-China rivalry continues to intensify." -- Yuji Maeda * Journal of Asian Studies *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. History and Responsibility: Debates over
The Showa History 37
2. From Relational Identity to Specific Identity: On Equality and Nationality 57
3. Asian Theory and European Humanity: On the Question of Anthropological Difference 91
4. "You Asians": On the Historical Role of the Binary of the West and Asia 129
5. Addressing the Multitude of Foreigners, Echoing Foucault / Naoki Sakai and John Solomon 159
6. The Loss of Empire and Inward-Looking Society 183
Part 1: Area Studies and Transpacific Complicity 183
Part 2: Empire Under Subcontract 197
Part 3: Inward-Looking Society 247
Conclusion: Shame and Decolonization 269
Appendix 1. Memorandum on Policy towards Japan / Edwin O. Reischauer 287
Appendix 2. Statement on Racism Prepared by William Haver and Naoki Sakai, March 20, 1987, in Chicago / William Haver and Naoki Sakai 291
Notes 295
References 329
Index 341
