End of Pax Americana

Naoki Sakai is Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Asian Studies Emeritus at Cornell University and the author of many books, including Voices of the Past: The Status of Language in Eighteenth-Century Japanese Discourse and Translation and Subjectivity: On Japan and Cultural Nationalism.

• Acknowledgments  ixIntroduction  11. History and Responsibility: Debates over The Showa History  372. From Relational Identity to Specific Identity: On Equality and Nationality  573. Asian Theory and European Humanity: On the Question of Anthropological Difference  914. "You Asians": On the Historical Role of the Binary of the West and Asia  1295. Addressing the Multitude of Foreigners, Echoing Foucault / Naoki Sakai and John Solomon  1596. The Loss of Empire and Inward-Looking Society  183Part 1: Area Studies and Transpacific Complicity  183Part 2: Empire Under Subcontract  197Part 3: Inward-Looking Society  247Conclusion: Shame and Decolonization  269Appendix 1. Memorandum on Policy towards Japan / Edwin O. Reischauer  287Appendix 2. Statement on Racism Prepared by William Haver and Naoki Sakai, March 20, 1987, in Chicago / William Haver and Naoki Sakai  291Notes  295References  329Index  341

“This is a masterful and brilliant account of the rise and fall of the Pax Americana from the perspective of Japan and northeast Asia. Working through and beyond the pitfalls and shortcomings of area studies, Naoki Sakai opens new and often unexpected angles on racism, nationalism, and the nation form in a time of transition. There is much to learn from this book, on Japan and northeast Asia, but more generally on the world we live in.” - Sandro Mezzadra, University of Bologna “Ranging widely across texts, languages, times (conventionally understood as the premodern and the modern), and places (typically called ‘Asia’ and ‘the West’), these essays interrogate the bordering practices of knowledge production about areas while demonstrating how rethinking modernity through Japan may enable ethically engaged and concretely situated critiques of nationalism, imperialism, racism, sexism, violence, humanism, and more across the globe. A singular and timely achievement from one of our most learned, theoretically rigorous, and profound thinkers.” - Takashi Fujitani, author of (Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II) "For those who want to push area studies and Japan studies to their limits and to finally pose real problems instead of offering paltry solutions in the world of ideology, The End of Pax Americana can inspire us to theorize new problems for research in the humanities and the social sciences that not only interpret the reality of our present conjuncture but that seek to change it." - Ken C. Kawashima (Journal of Japanese Studies) "True to the critical theory tradition, the book is sure to provoke many thoughts, especially regarding what roles Japan might play as the US-China rivalry continues to intensify." - Yuji Maeda (Journal of Asian Studies)