Unrequited love on the world stage, an essay review of

The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia 1895-1945.
(Marc Gallicchio, 2000)
See the arrow, on the doorpost. Sayin' this land is condemned. All the way from New Orleans, to Jerusalem. So begins Bob Dylan's song Blind Wille McTell a sombre mediation on black oppression, civil rights, the slave trade that forever blackened the popular conciseness of America's colonial past. In his opening lyric, Dylan casts the net far and wide, tracing it's path not only through 19 th and 20th century America, but to the religious roots and further across the middle east, giving light to the dim possibility that the White man's rape of African American human liberties, was but a mere localised tumour, in a cancer that condemned races of colour across the globe. In his admirable and much needed, study, not content with stopping at Jerusalem, Gallicchio casts his gaze further then Dylan, studying the relationship between African-Americans and their coloured brothers and sisters in Japan and China. Gallicchio's work, deserves much praise, as it endeavours to combine two of the most important issues of it's time, The civil rights of African-Americans and the dawning of America as a colonial superpower, into a single, efficient and economical narrative. Gallicchio's account of African American attitudes towards Japan (and to a lesser extent China), paints a picture of unrequited love. He identifies the appearance of an intellectual movement of Black internationalists, the African-Americans that held Japan up as a leader and saviour of the darker races everywhere, who if not directly, were at least able realise there own dreams of Black civil rights success through the example and noble ideology of the Japanese. This relationship is somewhat one-sided, and much like Dylan's own public image as a champion and spokesman for the civil rights movements of the 1960s, was largely due to infatuations and fetishes of an already pious black population, seeking a messiah. Gallicchio argues that, in the same respect Japan was laden with the heavy burden of African-American dreams of salvation from their white oppressors. Gallicchio's study begins 8th February, 1904. The attack of Japanese torpedo boats against

the Russian Naval base, Port Arthur. By 1905 the Russians had succumbed to the Japanese military might, after the Tsar's Baltic Fleet was left devastated in a matter of hours, by the Japanese navy. A Russian surrender followed the next day. Gallicchio presents this as a crucial moment in the evolution of African-American thought towards international events and towards their white oppressors. He recounts that Alfred Zimmern upon hearing of Japans victory, promptly discarded his lecture at Oxford University, addressing his students about, the most important event which has happened, or is likely to happen, in our lifetime; the victory of a non-white people over a white people. (pp 7) Discounting the bygone battles of Mongol aggression. The Tsar's defeat at the hands of the Japanese, was the first instance of the a White power falling to that of a race of colour. In a America, where thanks to Jim Crow segregation, Blacks were condemned to essentially a Second world existence that ran parallel to their fellow white countrymen's privileged place in the land of the rich and the free. To an African-American population who suffered, rampant lynchings and discrimination at every level of the social system, Japan's supposed crushing of the Russian military was all the tremulous hearts in New Orleans required. With the echoes of the whips, cracking against the broken backs of black slaves, still fresh, the use of the Russian Knout, (a whip like tool of torture) against Jews, further stirred up African-America hatred of the Tsar. The addition of a strong sympathy, African Americans had for the oppressed Russian Jews (pp 14), according to Gallicchio initiated a whirlwind (albeit one-sided) romance, towards the Japanese. Most of the source material for Gallicchio's study comes from black owned publications such as, Colored American, financed by Booker T Washington (arguably the dominant figure in the African-American community), organisations such as the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ) and eminent African-American scholars such as W.E.B Du Bois, who pronounced that Japan's stirring victories broke the Foolish modern magic of the word 'white' and raised the spector of a colored revolt against white exploration. (7) According to Gallicchio the expansion of American imperialism to Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, justified by what the poet Rudyard Kipling described as the White man's burden to bring democracy and civilisation to the benefit of other nations, was seen to African-Americans as merely an extension of the racism and discrimination they had experienced at home and continued to observe in Africa. African-American sympathies towards the Japanese, strengthened in wake of the rising tide of racism stirring in America, for example in 1906, when the San Francisco school board, segregated 93 Japanese children into a separate school for non-whites, a practice known all too well to African-Americans citizens. Tokyo's strong reaction to this event, and open talk of war against the US, further idolised the Japanese as saviour to the darker races in the minds of many African-Americans.

During the first world war, the British enlisted 1.2 million Indian troops. France 175,000 Africans at the front-line, while over 200,000 Chinese and Indo-Chinese served in its labour battalions. The United States military supplied 367,000 blacks to the war effort, 50,000 of which fought with distinction under the French command (pp33). According to Gallicchio, the courage and contribution of non-white soldiers during the first world war and American's reliance on the Japanese navy to defend it's waters in the pacific ocean, elevated the importance of the role that people of colour played on the world stage. Furthermore the illusion of strength and superiority of the White race born from perversions of Darwinism, that had used as a yardstick to maintain control over the peoples colour, was forever shattered in the minds of black Americans who came to realise amidst the horror of warfare, that whites were fallible, mortal beings just as themselves. As Gallicchio writes, "In aiding the Allies they (non whites) had witnessed the Europeans at their most vulnerable, the myth of white supremacy, (that was) weakened at the turn of the century by Japan's victory over Russia, suffered a mortal wound on the fields of Flanders" (pp 33). Japan's role as saviour of the darker races was further solidified in the minds of black internationalists during the Paris Peace Conference, immediately following the end of the first world war in 1919. The insistence of an article ensuring racial equality in treaty by the Japanese, was perceived as the Japanese championing cries of equality on behalf of African-Americans. The proposition gaining a majority vote in favour of its inclusion, was eventually rejected by the American and British governments, this further increasing the suspicion with which AfricanAmericans viewed American justification of its imperialism as spreading democracy and equality. Credit must also be given to Gallicchio, as he is careful to explain the limits of this black internationalism, highlighting dissenting views such as that of socialist and later black civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, who though heaping praise on the Japanese for their conduct at the Paris Peace treaty, was adamant in his profession that an interpretation of what he saw as Japanese imperialism in same vein as that of the west, through the narrow prism of a race war, was heavily naive. In 1918 in wake of Japan's intervention in Siberia he wrote in the Messenger Japan is more imperialistic than Prussia, he further elaborated upon his views in an article featured in the Atlantic the following year, It is not color, but reaction and capitalism which are clashing with radicalism...Japan does not want Asia for the Asiatics, she wants Asia for Japan. Both Japan and China are colored too. Color is no issue unless it is yellow gold. (pp 42) Throughout the book, Gallicchio provides a justification for the apparent blindness that the black internationalists had towards Japans imperialist hankerings in Asia. Although many of his explanations seem to be based on little more then hearsay and rumour in the black intellectual community. For example, the lack of condemnation from African Americans of Japan's aggression in China in the early 20th century, is justified by the proclamation that China was an Asian uncle

Tom, secretly colluding with white colonial powers against it's coloured again brothers and sisters. Recounting a conversation between the NAACP's James Weldon Johnson and an unnamed Japanese aquaintce who remarked The Chinese are like some of your colored people in the United States. We try to get an understanding with them that we must plan and work together, but every time we do they run and tell the white folks.(pp 49) an image all too easily equated with the traitorous black slave, running to tell his white massa about suspected revolt, for black internationalists. The assertion that Black intellectual ignorance of Japans true intentions in Asia, can be explained away by informal remarks made in conversation, seems at best a weak one. Although organisations such as the NAACP and popular writer like De Bois had a wide readership among African Americans at that time, the notoriety that counter claims by arguably more prominent figures such as A. Philip Randolph must have held, must also be addresses. Something that Gallicchio fails to achieve. Throughout the book, It seems that Gallicchio is intent in pursuing a romance novel of African American infatuation with Japan, in which dissenting and contradictory views are either underplayed or explained away by frivolous rumours among black intellectual circus. In doing so, Gallicchio often verges upon patronising the black community, painting them as nothing more then star-crossed lovers, blind to the realities of life. Gallicchio overall affectionate ethos concerning the rise of black intellectualism and civil rights advancement, is constantly undermined by such a characterisation. This proceeds directly to another criticism of Gallicchio's work. In citing the admittedly vocal and radical views of writers such as De Bois, the vast majority of the African-Amercian population is immediately isolated. It is difficult to describe De Bois as a spokesmen for African American sentiments, being first African American to earn a Ph.D from Harvard, in a era when most Universities did not allow African-American students. Although not wishing to detract from De Bois' astounding achievement, this does place doubt upon how much of the mass, poorly educated black communitys views he reflected. In taking this approach, Although Gallicchio himself does not refer to his work as a Transnational approach, to the extent that one interprets it as that, it is many respects a resounding failure. As previously mentioned, the love affair between African-American internationalists and Japan, was largely a tale of unrequited love. Thus Gallicchio's account of African-American and Japanese relations, is a onesided conversation, a dreamy eyed lover, reciting poetry and prose to a muse, who is indifferent of his existence. In his study Gallicchio does little to address the perception of African-Americans throughout history in Japan and China. The victory of the Japanese over a white Russian military in the Russo-Japanese war, is

highlighted as a crucial moment in formulation of the Japanese as the saviour of the darker races. The crux of the argument rests upon assertion that Japanese forces were able to swiftly defeat their white aggressors, thus instilling a sense of hope and anticipation in the African-American community that the Japanese would continue to fly flag for coloured peoples worldwide. However in reality, the mediation of then US president Theodore Roosevelt in reaching a peace settlement between the two countries, saved Japanese from what would of being an eventual defeat at the hands of a larger and much more resourceful Russia. Contrary to the view that Russia subsequently relinquished its territory to complete control of the Japanese, The Tsar was able to retain a Pacific port at Vladivostock. As a result, rioting erupted in Japan, by a population embittered that so much was sacrificed for such trivial gains. This account of the Russo-Japanese war was hardly controversial at the time, as evidenced by the fact that Roosevelt earned a Nobel peace prize for his role in ending the conflict. Yet Gallicchio does not address this when formulating internationalism at that time. In conclusion, Gallicchio's work, deserves praise for attempting to shed light upon an murky, understudied area of history, as well as his attempts to highlight the strong grasp that black intellectuals had of international events and world politics. This approach, provides a more important contribution to the area of African-American studies then it does to American/Japanese studies. It is valuable in dispelling popular myths portraying African-Americans, in the late 19 th and early 20th century as being and uneducated, insular, repressed race, concerned only with their own domestic affairs. However in trying to peruse a history that largely wasnt there (at least reciprocally) and ignoring more intelligent dissenting views from other black intellectuals, as well as failing to address the extent to which the Japanese held opinions towards African-Americans, Gallicchio undermines this Nobel cause, and is in danger of portraying the entire black intellectual community as somewhat selfishly obsessed with perceiving everything as a race issue. Eventually the main proponents of black internationalist movement, abandoned their cause, in the wake of unjustifiable Japanese military aggression into china, and the bombing of Pearl harbour. Anything less then vehement anti-Japanese sentiment was perceived as treason in the US. For an African-American population striving for social inclusion, this was too much of stigma to bear. In response the few remaining black internationalists turned there hearts toward China, the only non-white of the allies in WW2. However china, failed to push anything remotely resembling a racial equality agenda, in favour of securing its own communist agenda. his arguments on the rise of black

Gallicchio's main failure perhaps parallels the failings of the black internationalists he identifies in his study. An over zealous desire to perceive a world stage, governed by nations and men of ideals of, equality, redemption and salvation, such a naive, idealistic interpretation of history inevitably falls to the real prime motivators of such movements, money, power, capital, just as the likes of A. Philip Randolph and other black socialists had proclaimed all along. Figures who Gallicchio, though paying lip service to, largely underestimates the importance of in AfricanAmerican international thought. Later on in the book, Gallicchio is forced to concede that The FBI found that the ringleaders of the black internationale were actually confidence men with only an abstract connection to Japan (pp 147). Yet even this revelation, is underplayed. Much like Gallicchio's black internationalists were looking towards Japan and China as noble champions of racial equality, Gallicchio perceived the black community as being lead by mainly such ideals a race equality in analysing international affairs. In reality the evidence suggests, that both the Japanese, Chinese and the Black intellectual community were more than aware of the roles power and capital and class played in the international stage. This sentiment is perhaps expressed in what Dylan writes in the closing verse of his black civil rights song used to open this essay. Well, God is in his heaven, and we all want what's his, but power and greed and corruptible seed, seem to be all that there is.