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Sixth Column, also published under the title The Day After Tomorrow, is a 1949 science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein, set in a United States that has been conquered by a foreign invader. It centers on the activites of a research lab hidden in the Colorado mountains, which is the last remaining outpost of the United States Army after its defeat by the Pan-Asians. The conquerors had absorbed the Soviets after an attack by them and had gone on to amalgamate India as well. The invaders are depicted as ruthless and cruel - for example, they crush an abortive rebellion by killing 150,000 American civilians as punishment.

The book is notable for its frank and controversial portrayal of racism. The Pan-Asian conquerors regard themselves as a chosen people predestined to rule over lesser races, and they refer to white people as slaves. "Three things only do slaves require: work, food, and their religion." They require outward signs of respect, such as jumping promptly into the gutter when a member of the chosen race walks by, and the slightest hesitation to show the prescribed courtesies earns a swagger stick across the face. One character is Frank Mitsui, a hunted man mourning the murder of his wife and children by the invaders because "they did not fit" in the new PanAsiatic racial order. The Americans in the novel respond to their conquerors's racism by often referring to them in unflattering terms, such as flat face, slanties (a derisive reference to the epicanthal folds typical of Asian genetics), and monkey boys.

Some people view both Sixth Column and Farnham's Freehold, another novel by Heinlein, as proof that Heinlein is a racist. Others argue that Heinlein only made strong philosophical points about racism in these two works, and that those who disagree resort to attacking the author's reputation rather than answering his arguments. (Moreover, in the case of Sixth Column, the original story idea was developed by John W. Campbell, not by Heinlein himself.)

On the other hand, some commentators have claimed that the strongly hierarchical and anti-individualistic "Bug" society in Starship Troopers is based on World War II-era JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh. Then, too, Heinlein's hero E.C. "Oscar" Gordon, in Glory RoadGlory Road is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1963. Discharged from the war in Asia, Oscar sits in a cafe in France hoping to win the Irish Sweepstakes. Into his life walks a beautiful woman (witch or empress?) who brings him on, makes unflattering comments about Asians (including the Vietnamese, whose women he claims to find sexually unattractive because they are allegedly small and childlike). Of course it will always be possible to argue that the views of a character do not necessarily reflect those of the author, and Heinlein did include sympathetic Asian characters in his later works (e.g. "Tiger" Kondo in The Cat Who Walks Through WallsThe Cat Who Walks Through Walls is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1985. It is one of the " Lazarus Long" set of books. A writer seated at the best restaurant on the space station is approached by a man who desperately but crypt -- a cameo appearance by Yoji Kondo , a NASA scientist of Heinlein's acquaintance who also edited the tribute volume Requiem ).