“An important read for scholars of Japanese and Southeast Asian Studies... intended to demonstrate that despite Japan’s Pan-Asian discourse, American knowledge and power has defined Japanese and Filipino history writing since the early twentieth century.”

The Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

“Writing History in America’s Shadow is especially adroit at demonstrating the underlying legacies of Orientalism and imperialism on US area studies, including Japanese studies and Southeast Asian studies. . . . [This book] is an astute meditation on history and politics, modest and at times disjointed in its historical scope but ambitious in its historiographical intervention.”

Pacific Affairs

“Employing almost ten years’ worth of archival research and interviews, Serizawa’s book is commendable for its documentation of the individual histories of numerous Japanese scholars and his explanation of the political context behind their intellectual works, which were for either propaganda or academic use. Many of those included in this book are understudied, which gives Serizawa the leverage on the selection of these authors.”

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints