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Herbert Norman (1909-1957)
Herbert Norman (1909-1957)
Herbert Norman worked at 345 Laurier as the lead in compiling all of the decrypted information from the examination unit into intelligence reports for the Canadian government but also for the British and American governments.
Norman was born in Japan to Canadian parents and didn't leave until university.[1] As a result he was fluent in spoken and written Japanese as well as English. [1] He then went on to do his university degrees in North America, finishing with a masters in Japanese history in 1936 from Harvard University. [1]
In 1940 he published a book titled "Japan's Emergence as a Modern State; Political and Economic Problems of the Meiji Period" which is still a significant text for japanologists today. [1] Norman joined the Canadian public service in the same year and was promptly posted in Tokyo as a Canadian diplomat. [1] The attack on pearl harbour in 1941 brought Canada and Japan formally into war with each other. As a result Norman was held as a Prisoner of War for 2 years until he was released back to Canada in 1943. [1]
Upon his return to Canada he promptly joined the Examination Unit as an expert on Japan's political atmosphere and language. The decrypted messages of the examination unit were fed to Norman who used them to produce daily reports summarizing their information, impact and potential implications. [2] These reports were then given to the Department of External Affairs (DEA) and were used to inform war time efforts. The DEA is recorded as saying
“The Services [Canadian and allied forces] soon came to depend on Norman’s summaries and the section did its best work during the period of Japanese ascendancy in the pacific. During 1943 particularly the reports of Japanese diplomats from Europe and South America were of the greatest value in forming a picture of the progress of the war”. [1]
After the end of WW2, McCarthyism took hold in the US and its allies. During Norman's time at Harvard he had a “youthful flirtation with Marxism” which resulted in extensive suspicion and harassment by the US government. Despite multiple investigations that found that Norman had never been involved in communist groups, he was constantly under scrutiny. Despite this he was revered as a top Canadian diplomat with a successful career. He was posted to Cairo as Canada’s ambassador to Egypt at the end of 1956 days before the outbreak of the Suez Crisis.
In April of 1957 he jumped off of the top floor of the Swedish Embassy in Cairo to his death. His death shocked the Canadian public at the time and changed how public service employees were treated in the press when it came to their potential connections with communism. [2]
Rumours still circle as to what led him to end his own life, but In 1943 Herbert Norman was a junior External Affairs officer, recently repatriated from Japan and noted for his Japanese language skills. [2]
[1] F. Jensen, Kurt. Cautious Beginnings: Canadian Foreign Intelligence, 1939-51. 9780774814843. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008. Canadian Electronic Library/desLibris. Ch 5. Downloaded 16-10-2018.[2] Wark, W. (1989). The Evolution of Military Intelligence in Canada. Armed Forces & Society, 16(1), 77-98.
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