The Historical Journal, , (), pp. – Printed in the United Kingdom Cambridge University Press ‘LIGHTER THAN YELLOW, BUT NOT ENOUGH’: WESTERN DISCOURSE ON THE JAPANESE ‘RACE’, 1854–1904* ROTEM KOWNER University of Haifa . During the half century (–) which followed the opening of Japan’s ports, Westerners scrutinized the rediscovered archipelago and attempted to classify its inhabitants within their racial system. Despite the claim for ‘ scientific ’ objectivism, Western racial views of the Japanese were largely dictated by contemporary political and moral attitudes toward Japan. Hence, writings on the Japanese ‘ race ’ reflected not only the racial knowledge of the period but also the asymmetry between the West and Japan. These writings embodied a genuine discourse : they were propounded in texts, historically located, and displayed a coherent system of meaning. Critically, the Western discourse regarding the identity of the Japanese people aimed to maintain, and even produce, power relations between the colonial powers and the local population, and as such it exerted ideological influence on both Western readers and the Japanese. The present article traces this racial discourse, and attempts to explain the rapid transformation of the image of the Japanese people from an almost unknown racial entity to a national group Westerners perceived as a major racial threat. The twentieth century has witnessed the culmination of the concept of race as one of the fundamental determinants of social and international relations. The dark side of this concept is racism, namely the expression of the superiority of one race’s cultural heritage over that of another race. Racism depends on the existence of clear categories as well as a system of classification, and much research has been carried out on its lengthy development in Europe and North America. Racism, it is argued here, may develop in a relatively short period and without much contact with its target group. One such an example is the fervent racist hatred the Allies, and particularly Americans, felt toward the Japanese people during the Pacific War. Incredibly, only a century earlier Westerners had had only a vague idea concerning secluded Japan and the racial constitution of its people. The opening of Japan had ended the obscurity, and within the next half century, Westerners endeavoured to establish the racial standing of the Japanese and simultaneously transformed their attitudes * I thank Harumi Befu, Peter Duus, Charles Hayford, Eyal Ben-Ari, Mukund Subramanian, and several anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts. For accounts on the racial attitudes of the Allied forces toward Japan, see Christopher Thorne, Allies of a kind : The United States, Britain, and the war against Japan, – (Oxford, ); Christopher Thorne, ‘ Racial aspects of the Far Eastern War of – ’, Proceedings of the British Academy, (), pp. – ; John Dower, War without mercy: race and power in the Pacific War (New York, ) ; John Dower, Japan in war and peace : selected essays (New York, ).