Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Brokering a Race War traces the complex experiences of second-generation Japanese American (Nisei) soldiers and civilian linguists during the Pacific War and in occupied Japan. Framed in a transimperial context, this book examines the interactions between the United States and Japan as well as Japanese Americans’ complicated relationships to white Americans and Japanese nationals from 1941 through 1952. With a focus on Nisei’s interstitial positions and brokering roles, the book interrogates the changing meanings and shifting grounds of race, citizenship, and culture. It unravels how these minority American soldiers came to appreciate the power of their birthright citizenship in the context of the total war against and the subsequent domination of the enemy who shared their same ancestry. This book also explains how the rise of inclusionary nationalism in post-World War II America was intertwined with the making of Nisei soldiers as an embodiment of “minority imperial citizenship.” Their work as military and civilian linguists in occupied Japan turned them into the frontline executors of US imperial power under the guise of spreading colorblind democracy and capitalism to the Cold War Asia-Pacific and beyond. By examining the involvement of Japanese Americans in America’s “Good War” and the occupation of defeated Japan from a transimperial perspective, Brokering a Race War presents a critical intervention into the oft-celebratory representations of minority US servicemen as a trope for America’s disavowal of racism and a paragon of its multicultural democracy.</jats:p>