“I Am Colored Too”: Cross-Racial Encounters on the Battlefield in War-Era Narratives of the Pacific Theater

Abstract: This article examines three World War II novels set in the Pacific: Jewish American author , Jewish American author , and African American author . Based on their firsthand experiences on the battlefront, these authors depict how racism toward non-Anglo-Americans is detrimental in the war against fascism worldwide. The authors also consider the anti-Japanese sentiment during the war and the preexisting “yellow peril” racism on the home front, disrupting the US master narrative of World War II as “good” and “necessary.”