This was the depiction of East Asians as an existential threat to the Western World, mainly during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Asians were used as antagonists in movies, novels, and comic books, often portrayed as criminal masterminds bent on taking over the world.
This was partially due to increased Asian immigration to the United States during this time, and the knowledge that the Asian population far outnumbered the population of the United States.