China in African Americans’ Pursuit of Equality during the Second World War

Abstract

After Pearl Harbor in 1941, African Americans could no longer openly view Japan as a staunch ally in the fight against American racism. China, formerly looked down upon as weak in front of white people, suddenly emerged as a preferred alternative. However, Japan continued to justify its fascism by describing the war as fundamentally racial, in a clear attempt to draw nonwhite peoples into its confrontation with Euro-American nations. Rather than succumbing to this manipulation, African Americans reframed the war as a struggle for humanity, emphasizing the compassionate and generous disposition inherent among human beings. They envisioned China as embodying this quality and utilized its identity as both a nonwhite ally of white America and a victim of nonwhite Japan. This strategy aimed not only to debunk the notion of a ‘racial war’ but also to press white Americans to treat Black people with humane dignity. Though only successful in demonstrating African Americans’ loyalty to the nation, the de-racing maneuver represented a significant but often overlooked step in their pursuit of racial equality.