This book puts forward a revisionist view of Japanese wartime thinking. It seeks to explore why Japanese intellectuals, historians and philosophers of the time insisted that Japan had to turn its back on the West and attack the United States and the British Empire. Based on a close reading of the texts written by members of the highly influential Kyoto School, and revisiting the dialogue between the Kyoto School and the German philosopher Heidegger, it argues that the work of Kyoto thinkers cannot be dismissed as mere fascist propaganda, and that this work, in which race is a key theme, constitutes a reasoned case for a post-White world. The author also argues that this theme is increasingly relevant at present, as demographic changes are set to transform the political and social landscape of North America and Western Europe over the next fifty years.
'It is an unexpected thrill to pick up a book that puts Tanabe Hajime's thought in the philosophical limelight...He has presented solid translations of two seminal texts of Tanabe, one of them only recently discovered...He does not hesitate to shatter the silence on issues that many in the West have considered too risky to ask.' - Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
'Defending Japan's Pacific War is a major achievement for which the author must be congratulated...It deserves a wide readership beyond Japan studies.' - International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter
'Defending Japan's Pacific War is a major achievement for which the author must be congratulated...It deserves a wide readership beyond Japan studies.' - International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter







