Spy Prevention: US National Security, Race, and Citizenship,1945-1952

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370858
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: History of Europe and America
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Hayashi Brian 京都大学, 人間・環境学研究科(研究院), 教授 (30314165)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: Yellow Peril / racial ideology / national security / citizenship / US Congress / 1952 immigration law

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim was to explain how racialist/anti-Asian attitudes (Yellow Peril) among American generals and US Congressmen transformed into anti-communist attitudes (Red Peril) during the Cold War. Based on public and private sources, it examined historically their ideas of national security, race, and citizenship as applied to east Asian immigration from World War II to 1952. The study examined documents left by key politicians at the national level who were responsible for the new 1952 immigration law; Secretary of State andState Department, Passport Bureau director; regional politicians; and government agencies focused on national security, such as the Civil Defense Agency.
The study found the Yellow Peril’s political and economic values transferred to the Red Peril ideology. It also revealed how the two national political leaders were focused on the internal/domestic threat rather than the external threat that American military leaders were preoccupied with.

Free Research Field

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