George Gorman (1888–1956)

40 George Gorman (1888–1956) DEBORAH MACFARLANE George Gorman with his daughter Catherine (c.1931) INTRODUCTION The traitor, he knew what was going on all along and of course the Japanese would use him just as long as he was useful to them.(Margaret Robertson)1 As a propagandist for the Japanese during the inter-war years, George Gorman was a controversial member of the foreign-press network in China. Although born in England, he was often identi- fied as Irish-Canadian, a misnomer he seldom corrected. Antipathy to authority and a seemingly flexible morality often put him at odds with the British establishment. Curiously, the seeds of his support for Japan germinated in an unlikely time and place, 1920s Canada. Through his work on a Vancouver newspaper, George Gorman became acquainted with Japanese consul Isago Gomyo¯ 2 at a time of pronounced anti-Asian sentiment in Canada. Fear over low-paid 507 Deborah Mcfarlane - 9789004246461 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 03:10:17PM via free access BRITAIN & JAPAN: BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAITSVOLUMEVIII workers threatening jobs of the white population, and strong competition from the Japanese and Chinese in areas such as fishing and agriculture, fuelled political debate on the question of immigra- tion from East Asia. However, not everyone shared the same view.An editorial appeared in theVancouver Sun 20 December 1925: If there is such a thing as yellow peril, it is not so much the invasion of Canada by Oriental immigrants, as the inability of the Occidentals to keep up with the Orientals in point of industry,initiative and resource.3 Gorman concurred: setting the course for the future. LIFE BEFORE GOING TO JAPAN George William Aloysius Gorman was born in Liverpool, England, 15 September 1888, eldest son of bookkeeper JohnThomas and Lucy Gorman (née Doran), second-generation Irish-Catholic immigrants. Gorman attended St Nicholas’ Catholic school adjacent to Liverpool University until 1904. He then worked briefly as a clerk at Messrs. Midwood and Company, cotton merchants, Liverpool, where his father was also employed. By the late 1890s one-quarter of the population of Liverpool was Irish, the majority of whom were families fleeing the devastating famine of the mid-century. In spite of the family’s modest success, Gorman would have been well aware of the undercurrent of political radicalism in the Irish community and anti-Irish prejudice. Driven by an innate restlessness he ran away from home and worked his passage on the SS Lake Manitoba, arriving at Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in 1905. Gorman headed to Quebec where he secured a cadetship on the Montreal Star, working his way up from copy boy to marine editor. He gained further experience on newspapers in Boston and New York, finally settling in Fort William (Thunder Bay), Ontario, around 1909. Here his maritime interests extended to trade and commerce; Gorman, age twenty-three, was employed as an industrial commis- sioner for FortWilliam in 1911.4The same year he married Belgium- born Bertha Marie Bockstaele, whose sister Clémence was wife of a prominent local businessman John King, patriarch of one of the most influential families of Thunder Bay. A daughter, Mariette, was born in 1913. If doubts existed about Gorman’s loyalty to Britain in the years leading up to the SecondWorldWar, there was little question in 1914. Within weeks of the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered for enlistment in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. He joined the 8th Battalion and served in France where he attained the rank of 508 Deborah Mcfarlane - 9789004246461 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 03:10:17PM via free access GEORGE GORMAN (1888–1956) Company Sergeant-Major. He was on active service until 1916 when he was transferred to the administrative staff.5 Following the 2nd Battle ofYpres he penned ‘With the Little Black Devils’6 a tribute to his regiment. It detailed engagements with the German troops, the use of poison gas and the destruction of the town ofYpres,which he described as‘Pompeii in a death agony’.Diagnosed with a heart condition (valvular disease), and neurasthenia, Gorman was deemed medically unfit, discharged and sent home to Canada in December 1917. Having difficulties adjusting to civilian life, his mar- riage to Bertha ended a year after his return. In 1919 he worked on a newly established local newspaper, the Bulletin, then as news editor of the FortWilliam Daily-Times Journal for two years.7 In 1923 Gorman moved to British Columbia to work on the Vancouver Star.The newspaper proprietor, General Victor Odlum, a strict disciplinarian and conservative, had run (unsuccessfully) on a ‘White Canada’ platform in the 1921 federal election.8 Under his direction the Star targeted the Chinese community with a series of sensationalist headlines (yellow journalism).9 With growing admira- tion and respect for his Japanese friends, Gorman grew increasingly angry at the anti-Asian tone of the paper and resigned his position after heated arguments with Odlum. Encouraged by the offer of assis- tance from the Japanese consul, Isago Gomyo¯, Gorman decided to take his family to the Far East. Two years earlier Gorman had met Aileen May Brown, a journalist thirteen years his junior, society co-editor of the Vancouver Sun.10 Aileen was born in Bournemouth, England, in 1901 and had emi- grated with her family to Massachusetts in the USA in 1911. The family moved to Montreal a few years later where Aileen attended school and started her career. On 23 June 1926 George, Aileen and baby daughter Catherine sailed to Japan on the SS Arabia Maru. JAPAN Soon after arriving inYokohama Gorman went by train to Tokyo to meet with Shiba Sometarō, the then owner and editor of the Japan Times, to discuss work prospects.11 Shiba explained that there was no permanent position available, but provided him with an introduction to the English-language newspaper, North China Standard, in Peking. Gorman also met up with his old friend from Vancouver, ex-consul Isago Gomyo¯,who had established a trading companyTo¯zai Sho¯kai in Ginza,Tokyo, shortly after returning to Japan in 1926. The Chief of Metropolitan Police in Tokyo confirmed that Isago Gomyo¯, who had known Gorman as chief editor of the Vancouver Star during the ‘anti-Asian hysteria’, had reported that Gorman had taken a conciliatory attitude towards Japan and had resigned after 509 Deborah Mcfarlane - 9789004246461 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 03:10:17PM via free access BRITAIN & JAPAN: BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAITSVOLUMEVIII disagreements with the owner.Isago Gomyo¯ guaranteed that Gorman was ‘friendly to Japan’ and noted that he spoke basic Japanese and had a genuine appreciation of Japanese culture.12 Gorman’s movements continued to be monitored by the Japanese Foreign Ministry. CHINA A month later the Gormans left Kobe on the Nanrei Maru forTientsin, then travelled by train to Peking. They took up residence in the British legation quarter where they lived for the next four years. Gorman became editor of the North China Standard, one of the English-language newspapers in Japan’s Foreign Ministry network.13 He revamped the paper by adding photographic images to the old text-only format, a nod to his own love of photography. Aileen assisted with proofreading and writing.Their second child, Peter, was born in 1928. When the North China Standard ceased publication in 1930,Gorman briefly took up teaching English at Fu Jen Catholic University.Then through his previous connection with the Foreign Ministry he was installed as an adviser to the Manchurian government in Xingjing (Changcun).14 Gorman was one of a number of figures whose aim was to assist in conveying a favourable impression of Japanese policy in Manchuria to the international community. He also no doubt kept the Japanese authorities informed on foreign opinion. He was soon given special access to garrisons making it easier for him to report on the unfolding events.A few months after the Mukden Incident on 31 December, Gorman, accompanied by three other foreign journalists and the British military attaché in Peking, embarked on a field trip in Manchuria to study Japanese efforts to suppress ‘banditry’.15 Between 1929 and 1935 Gorman was a foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph filing reports from Manchuria. However by the mid-1930s the Far East Department of the Foreign Office in London had become concerned about Gorman’s reporting for the Daily Telegraph in view of his close association with the Japanese Foreign Ministry and the paper was pressed to have him removed.16 In 1933 Gorman took over as editor of the Manchurian Daily News in Dairen, an organ of the Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railway, where he became increasingly involved in campaigning for the newly formed state of Manchukuo. Attempting to legiti- mize Japanese claims of hegemony, Gorman produced propaganda for the newspaper, including an elaborate literary piece for the 1934 Enthronement Supplement entitled ‘Monarchs from the Gods’ – a paean to the ancestors of the newly crowned emperor Puyi.17 A British embassy report at the time noted that the Manchurian Daily News contained ‘typically Irish intolerances’, but did not 510 Deborah Mcfarlane - 9789004246461 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 03:10:17PM via free access GEORGE GORMAN (1888–1956) question Gorman’s loyalty.18 Indeed, the British consulate at Dairen found that at times Gorman could be very useful.A lengthy account of Gorman’s return trip from England to Manchuria in 1934 on the Trans-Siberian Railway, published in the Manchurian Daily News, included his observations of the military build-up of Russian forces in Siberia. A British Foreign Office report stated: ‘Making due allowances for the fact Mr Gorman is a paid Japanese propagandist,this is one of the most interesting and detailed accounts yet recorded of the Soviet military preparations in the Far East.’19 The Gormans left Dairen for Peking in 1936 to start a bi-monthly magazine, Caravan, described as pro-Japanese.Aileen Gorman worked on the staff and was credited with doing much of the editing and writing on travel and Chinese culture.

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