He was under tremendous pressure, working around the clock to help resolve the Suez Crisis. He would persuade Egypt's leader to accept peacekeeping troops in the Sinai, a proposal that would bring temporary peace to the Middle East while earning Mr. Norman's boss the Nobel Peace Prize.
He had twice earlier weathered similar accusations, enduring a demotion while trying to rehabilitate his reputation. A security investigation by his own country exonerated him, but he had paid a price, and a resurrection of what many regarded as a smear must have seemed unbearable.
His death was front-page news. A headline in The Globe and Mail called it "Murder by slander." The newspaper's editorial cartoonist depicted the Statue of Liberty hiding her face beneath her robes while hanging her head in shame.
Of course, the act of suicide was taken by his accusers as an acknowledgment of guilt. The charges have never entirely disappeared, as some continue to question his politics, his sexuality, his college affiliations, his reasons for taking his own life. Even though no evidence of his disloyalty has emerged from Soviet archives, Mr. Norman's defenders continue to face the burden of proving a negative.
John Price did not learn of the story until working on his doctoral thesis on Japanese labour. As it turns out, Mr. Norman had been a well-regarded expert on Japan, working closely with U.S. General Douglas MacArthur when the island nation was occupied after its defeat in the Second World War. Prof. Price, who now teaches modern Japanese history at the University of Victoria, was impressed by the late ambassador's voluminous writings.
So, how do you rehabilitate a scholar's insights on Japan when all anyone wants to talk about is sex and spying and the conspiratorial dramas of a paranoid era?
Prof. Price has launched a website dedicated to a man largely forgotten by the Canadian public. The E. H. Norman Digital Archive - web.uvic.ca/ehnorman/ - includes a selection of speeches and scholarly essays, as well as three pieces of his diplomatic correspondence. Over time, more of his articles, including some written in Japanese, are to be added.
He attended Victoria College at the University of Toronto and completed a master's degree in ancient history at Cambridge University before attending Harvard University on a fellowship in Far Eastern Studies.
He then contributed to Canada's war effort as an intelligence officer. He was seconded to the occupation staff under Gen. MacArthur after Japan's surrender.
In 1950, his name was raised during testimony at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on communism and disloyalty. He was recalled by External Affairs, only to be cleared of all charges within seven weeks.
In 1956, he was named ambassador to Egypt, where he would play a role in the settlement that would lead to then-minister of external affairs Lester Pearson being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
On April 4, 1957, he rode an elevator to the top floor of a building in Cairo and then climbed a stairwell to the roof. He stepped off. He was 47.
Prof. Price's website is not the only posthumous West Coast connection to the case. His widow donated his papers to the University of British Columbia. As well, the University of Victoria history department is preparing materials to add the case to the list of Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, an online program for students.
Mr. Norman is better remembered in the land of his birth than he is in the land for which he served. A rare Western expert in his time to have specialized in Japanese history, he has been the subject of numerous biographies, while a four-volume collection of his work has been published. Meanwhile, his reputation has also come under attack during the current rise of neo-nationalism, where right-wing critics accuse him of being prepared to hand Japan to the Soviets.
With spectacles and buttoned cloth vest, a white hanky carefully tucked into the breast pocket of his jacket, Mr. Norman dressed every bit the distinguished scholar. For his part, Prof. Price thinks academe would have provided Mr. Norman a refuge from the communist witch hunts.
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