Events
September 2023 Workshop
Japanese Racial Identities within US-Japan Relations, 1853-1919
Time: Tuesday, September 26, 2023, from 5:00PM to 6:30PM (JST)
Venue: Online with Zoom
Languages: Presentation will be held in English. Discussion will be held in both English and Japanese.
Registration: Please register from the URL or QR code on the flyer by September 25, 11:00 AM. The registration period for this event has ended.
【Presentation】
Tarik MERIDA (Assistant Professor, Freie Universität Berlin)
【Discussant】
Facundo GARASINO (Research Fellow, JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development)
【Abstract】
The purpose of this talk is to illustrate the process through which, at the turn of the twentieth century, the Japanese went from a racial anomaly to honorary members of the “White race.” While the racial ideology of the time theoretically classified the Japanese as “yellow,” their political, economic, and military achievements made this classification uncertain. Forced to cope with the new power in the Far East, Western nations had to devise a negotiation zone – a racial middle ground – in which they could accommodate the Japanese and adapt their racial identity. The idea of a racial middle ground enables us to understand how the Japanese managed, by diplomatic skills and political pressure, to differentiate themselves from other “colored races” and assert their status as a “modern” nation.
