From White to Yellow: The Japanese in European Racial Thought, 1300-1735 - McGill-Queen’s Studies in the Hist of Id

When Europeans landed in Japan they encountered people they perceived as white-skinned and highly civilized, but these impressions did not endure. Gradually the Europeans' positive impressions faded away and Japanese were seen as yellow-skinned and relatively inferior. This book traces racial roots of the modern clash between Japan and the West.