MATTHEW JONES A"Segregated"Asia?:Race,the Bandung Conference, and Pan-Asianist Fears in American Thought and Policy,1954-1955 Writing in a March 1927 editorial for the Negro World,Amy Jacques Garvey conjectured that a "guilty conscience [had]begun to torture the white race. They foresee in awakened Asia the stern hand of retribution preparing to return measure for measure all that it has received.They are in the throes of a horrid nightmare....The cycle of civilization is shifting,and with it the battleground of the future.The age of the Atlantic has passed,the age of the Pacific is here." With the coming of Pacific dominance,the "superior force of Asiatic arms," aroused against Western influence,could eventually be turned against the United States.In such circumstances,Garvey asked,would fifteen million oppressed American Negroes "say that the Asiatics are wrong to demand racial equality,or will they sing,My country 'tis of thee,sweet land of liberty'?" Although there was a future possibility that the United States might offer a hand of friendship to China,she was not optimistic the racial divide between the white and nonwhite worlds could be bridged,concluding: It seems as if the inevitable must happen;Nordic arrogance refuses to treat with young Asia,and war clouds thicken,as the blacks of Africa and America and the yellow and brown peoples of Asia nurse a common resentment for being called inferior by white nations that spend their time exploiting and keeping them underfoot.' Such potent images of a united Asia,typically under Japanese leadership, forming a transnational alliance with disaffected African Americans found cur- rency in black internationalist writings during the interwar years.'One can also see how the war in the Far East of 1941-45 generated a new surge in these ideas,as concerns among white Americans mounted that Japan's ideology of “Asia for the Asians'”might create conditions where the peoples of a“liberated” 1.Amy Jacques Garvey,"Awakened Asia,"Negro World,19 March 1927.Reprinted in Voices of a Black Nation:Political Journalism in the Harlem Renaissance,ed.Theodore G.Vincent (San Francisco,1973),295-96. 2.See Marc Gallicchio,Tbe African American Encounter witb Japan and Cbina:Black Inter- nationalism in Asia,1895-1945 (Chapel Hill,NC,2000),210. DIPLOMATIC HisToRy,Vol.29,No.5 (November 2005).2005 The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations(SHAFR).Published by Blackwell Publishing,Inc.,350 Main Street,Malden,MA,02148,USA and 96oo Garsington Road,Oxford OX4 2DQ,UK. 841matthew jones A “Segregated” Asia?: Race, the Bandung Conference, and Pan-Asianist Fears in American Thought and Policy, 1954–1955 Writing in a March 1927 editorial for the Negro World, Amy Jacques Garvey conjectured that a “guilty conscience [had] begun to torture the white race. They foresee in awakened Asia the stern hand of retribution preparing to return measure for measure all that it has received. They are in the throes of a horrid nightmare. . . . The cycle of civilization is shifting, and with it the battleground of the future. The age of the Atlantic has passed, the age of the Pacific is here.” With the coming of Pacific dominance, the “superior force of Asiatic arms,” aroused against Western influence, could eventually be turned against the United States. In such circumstances, Garvey asked, would fifteen million oppressed American Negroes “say that the Asiatics are wrong to demand racial equality, or will they sing, ‘My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty’?” Although there was a future possibility that the United States might offer a hand of friendship to China, she was not optimistic the racial divide between the white and nonwhite worlds could be bridged, concluding: It seems as if the inevitable must happen; Nordic arrogance refuses to treat with young Asia, and war clouds thicken, as the blacks of Africa and America and the yellow and brown peoples of Asia nurse a common resentment for being called inferior by white nations that spend their time exploiting and keeping them underfoot.1 Such potent images of a united Asia, typically under Japanese leadership, forming a transnational alliance with disaffected African Americans found cur￾rency in black internationalist writings during the interwar years.2 One can also see how the war in the Far East of 1941–45 generated a new surge in these ideas, as concerns among white Americans mounted that Japan’s ideology of “Asia for the Asians” might create conditions where the peoples of a “liberated” 841 Diplomatic History, Vol. 29, No. 5 (November 2005). © 2005 The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR). Published by Blackwell Publishing, Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, 02148, USA and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK. 1. Amy Jacques Garvey, “Awakened Asia,” Negro World, 19 March 1927. Reprinted in Voices of a Black Nation: Political Journalism in the Harlem Renaissance, ed. Theodore G. Vincent (San Francisco, 1973), 295–96. 2. See Marc Gallicchio, The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Inter￾nationalism in Asia, 1895–1945 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2000), 210