Race as International Identity? ‘Miscegenation’ in the U.S. Occupation of Japan and Beyond |
Race as International Identity? ‘Miscegenation’ in the U.S. Occupation of Japan and Beyond
Amerikastudien / American Studies
Volume 48, Number 1, Internationalizing U.S. History (2003)
pages 61-77
Yukiko Koshiro
The article attempts to retrieve the story of the little-known fate of so-called mixed-blood children, those born to American GIs and Japanese women in the aftermath of World War II, which had long vanished in a confluence of American and Japanese historical narratives. By shedding new light on the convergence of American and Japanese racisms and especially their mutual taboo on miscegenation, the article chronicles American and Japanese obsessions with “racial purity” as a national ideology during and after the U.S. Occupation of Japan. While the article highlights the adverse impact of racist thinking, its primary attempt is to break the silence on the mutual issue of miscegenation and provide a prelude to the story as part of a mainstream narrative of both nations. Only by internationalizing history is it possible to trace a nation’s trans-national Odysseys and relate them to American and Japanese postwar history. Furthermore, the article refers to cases of bi-racial children born in West Germany during and after U.S. Occupation, thus suggesting the extension of the study on the basis of empirical sources from Europe.
Tags: Amerikastudien / American Studies, Japan, West Germany, World War II, Yukiko Koshiro