W. E. B. Du Bois on Asia: Crossing the World Color Line

After Japan's defeat of Russia in the 1904 territorial war, W. E. B. Du Bois declared, "The Color Line in civilization has been crossed in modern times as it was in the great past. The awakening of the yellow races is certain. That the awakening of the brown and black races will follow in time, no unprejudiced student of history can doubt."

Du Bois's lifelong certitude that Asia would play a central role in determining the fates of races, nations, and world systems of power has not until n...