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

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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 immigration 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 commissioner 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

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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 marriage 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 admiration 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 assistance 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

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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

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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. Meanwhile Gorman took over as editor of the Peking Chronicle and facilitated its sale to Japanese interests.20 Back in Peking the family settled into the legation quarter and entertained a number of notable foreign visitors to China including Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin. Gorman was a keen hiker, and the family made various trips to the temples in the Western Hills of Peking, and along the coast of Hoshigaura (Dairen) where they lived. Catherine, who was very close to her father, said every effort was made to provide the children with a normal happy childhood in spite of their itinerant lifestyle. If there were concerns about the nature of their father’s work, or recurring financial difficulties, the children were not aware of them. Catherine Gorman said of her father: ‘he was an intelligent man, a voracious reader, and retained his passion for writing up until his death’. In 1938 another train adventure caught the attention of the British embassy when Gorman was one of the first foreigners to travel on the newly opened Peking-Jehol railway.While sightseeing during a break in the journey, Gorman had taken a photo of a concealed military establishment that aroused the suspicion of the Japanese authorities. When the train pulled into Kupeikou (Gubeiko) station Gorman was immediately arrested and had his Leica and 165 rolls of exposed film confiscated. On his return home he wrote a tongue-in-cheek article for the Peking Chronicle, making light of the incident that led to his arrest and nine-hour interrogation.A report from the British embassy in Peking concluded:

The news that the Japanese had picked on Mr Gorman who is North China’s leading pro-Japanese propagandist as their first victim, proved a source of considerable gratification to the breakfast tables of Peking where the journalistic pabulum consists of the most part of his daily hymns in praise of the Rising Sun.21

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In the same year Gorman was alleged to have received money from the Japanese military for supplying them with anti-British propaganda.22 Yet the following year, when Gorman’s position at the Peking Chronicle was abruptly terminated, an official report from the Japanese Chief-of-Staff to the Japanese Vice-Minister of War stated, ‘Gorman was dismissed for his pro-British leanings, at the outbreak of war with Germany.’23 This was one of the many contradictions that highlighted his complicated relationship with Britain and Japan.

JAPAN AGAIN With the help of friends the Gormans relocated to Yokohama in November 1939, where Gorman received a frigid reception from the British diplomatic community due to his reputation for being ‘hand-in-glove with the Japanese’. The family resided on ‘The Bluff’ (Yamate), where most foreigners lived, close to Sacred Heart Cathe- dral where Gorman attended daily mass — one of the few constants in his life. In 1940 Gorman was installed as news editor of the Japan Times & Advertiser, now under the control of the Gaimusho¯.24 An informant who was working at the paper in October 1940 claimed that Gorman, in addition to his editorial activities, was also an adviser to the Japanese government.25 In a private conversation with a British informant, Gorman said his reason for the accepting the position on the newspaper was ‘to inject a less anti-Allied tone’. Other British reports reveal conflicting opinions:

An informant who was acquainted with Gorman at the time of his employment with the Japan Times & Advertiser in 1940–41, states as his belief that Gorman also worked for the British Embassy in Tokyo in connection with their information service.26 A Canadian informant pointed out that opinion among individuals in the British Embassy was not unanimous that Gorman was a rascal, but some maintained that his articles on occasions contained comments against the Japanese veiled in ambiguous language.27

Owing to the seriousness of the international situation and on the advice of the British embassy, Aileen Gorman and the children were evacuated to Australia. They arrived in Brisbane in May 1941 where they resided for the three months before relocating to Sydney. Gorman remained in Japan. Because of her husband’s known propaganda activities in East Asia, Aileen was monitored by the Austra- lian authorities from the time of her arrival in the country in 1941 until 1944.A scrutiny was placed on her mail for approximately four months and her movements were observed.

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When articles appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Mel- bourne Sun alleging Gorman was the ‘Lord Haw Haw of the East’28 Aileen wrote to Colonel Longford Lloyd, Director of Military Intel- ligence in Canberra at the suggestion of Colonel Moore Cosgrove, Canadian Trade Commissioner in Sydney.29 Determined to defend her husband’s position, she stated that under no circumstances would Gorman willingly compromise the Allies in such an invidious manner and would only have done so under duress. She went on to say:

You may know that my husband is editorial writer and advisor (not as mentioned, an ‘occasional contributor’) to the Japan Times and Advertiser, on which newspaper I also worked and know the staff well. When I left Tokyo there were one or two young Americans employed by the newspapers as reporters but, to my knowledge, my husband is the only editorial writer and in conference daily with the Japanese authorities.The British Embassy in Tokyo, the British Consul-General in Yokohama, the press attaché of the Tokyo Embassy, Mr. Brain, each know the work he is doing while working with a Japanese newspaper and I think the work in these quarters is appreciated. Frequently he has been of use to the Embassy through newspaper sources. 30

Aileen offered to forward Lloyd copies of JapanTimes & Advertiser saying, ‘The morning paper editorials are serious, but the afternoon edi- tion gives scope for levity, with frequent subtle attacks at the enemy.’ She listened to Gorman’s bi-weekly broadcasts on short-wave radio (JOAK)31 and was of the opinion her husband used them to have a dig at his old foes,the Germans.It is difficult to know where the truth lay, as Gorman’s propaganda activities and close association with the Japanese Foreign Ministry prior to the outbreak of war would suggest he needed little coercion. A summary from Australian Military Censorship reported:

G.W. Gorman of the Japan Times and Advertiser,Yokohama, tells his wife of the cancellation of the column ‘Covering the World’ in which equal space had been made available to British and German interests. Because the German articles suffered by comparison with the British, the Germans wrote in that they were discontinuing their articles and consequently expected that the British bulletins would not be published to which the Japanese agreed, much to Gorman’s disgust.32

However, a British source claimed that the cancellation of the English column was actually due to it having been squeezed out by German influence. The German embassy was very active in Tokyo and had previously tried and failed to take over the JapanTimes and Advertiser.33 This was not the first time Gorman’s character had been called into question.An Australian report stated that Gorman’s work on the

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Japan Times & Advertiser did not have the tacit approval of the British embassy as his wife had suggested, as his work had long been known to the British authorities,and was the object of many denunciations.34 British Foreign Office records contain numerous contradictions regarding his motives and character. One British informant considered him to be a notorious liar:‘the only time one could be certain of his telling the truth was in the morning just after he attended early communion’.35 Gorman, who was a heavy drinker, variably claimed he was Irish, which in his view, gave him the freedom to write whatever he pleased due to Ireland’s neutrality. On the morning of 8 December 1941 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Gorman was arrested at his home at No.104 The Bluff,Yokohama and taken to theYamate police station for ques- tioning.The following day he was transferred to an internment camp at the Yokohama Yacht Club where he was held until 20 December. Four members of the foreign affairs section of the Kanagawa prefec- tural office arrived at the yacht club and took Gorman into a small room for interrogation, after which he was taken to Gumyo¯ji prison outside of Tokyo and placed in a detention cell.36 In a signed affidavit made in transit via Lourenço Marques in 1942 with other British subjects, Gorman detailed his arrest and imprisonment. He said that he had been beaten across the head and back during the course of one interrogation.The Japanese police had found a letter in his desk addressed to Mr R.H. Scott, director of the Ministry of Information (Far Eastern Branch) in Singapore.37 Explaining the events surrounding his arrest Gorman summed up by saying:

When Mr Scott visited Japan some time in Autumn 1940 I had written a letter advising him as to the most effective methods of conducting anti-German and pro-British propaganda in Japan.This letter was never sent to Mr Scott, but was apparently found by the police amongst my papers.38

A confidential British source stated that this was the reason for Gorman’s four-month detention in solitary confinement.39 His arrest and internment in 1941 made clear his loyalty went only so far in providing protection.

REPATRIATION Following his release from prison on 8 April 1942, Gorman was moved to a hotel in central Yokohama where he was permitted to reside ‘under guard’, a possible concession because of his assistance in the past. On the day of his departure on the repatriation ship he was

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Deborah Mcfarlane - 9789004246461 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 03:10:17PM via free access GEORGE GORMAN (1888–1956) transferred to the Yokohama Union Club for Americans along with other evacuees prior to embarkation. On 30 July 1942 Gorman boarded the Tatuta Maru, carrying sixty British embassy and consular staff from Tokyo,Yokohama and Kobe en route to Lourenço Marques in the first Japanese-British diplomatic exchange. Passengers were instructed by the Japanese officials not to talk to each other and were cautioned against speaking to a particular group and especially to Gorman, who seemed to be under heavy suspicion by the Japanese.40 Gorman recalled a job offer, which had been made to him at the time:

About seven weeks before evacuation an old friend of mine from the Manchurian days,ColonelYokohama,was appointed press officer of the Japanese military H.Q.in China,one of his plans was to consolidate the three English language newspapers at Shanghai (previously owned by the British and French) into one daily. I replied that I would accept the technical task but could not write the editorials.41

When Paul Gore-Booth,42 secretary in the British Embassy, became aware of his intention of taking up the offer in Shanghai he cautioned Gorman, strongly urging him not to accept the appointment and said that it would be tantamount to anti-British activity. He insisted that if Gorman were to be forcibly removed there would a counteraction by the British against a similar-ranking Japanese national.When Col. Yokohama boarded the ship in Shanghai, Gorman explained that he must decline the post for patriotic reasons. Col. Yokohama was disappointed but understood his position and urged him to return to Japan when the war was over.43 In a letter to his sister, Lucy, Gorman expressed his disappointment at having to decline the offer following Gore-Booth’s intervention:

I still think the Embassy took the wrong view, for it would be most useful to have an observer on the job at Shanghai in a position to record the march of events during hostilities. Other notable Britons on board take the same view.44

For Gorman, a journalistic opportunity in Shanghai was not his only motive.Concern for the welfare of his family also made it an economic one. Anxious about his chances of finding work in another country he wrote: ‘Gore-Booth assured me I would have no trouble finding an appointment owing to my long and intimate experience with men and events in the Far East.’ Gorman did not share his optimism. Despite serious strains in his marriage prior to leaving Japan, Gorman intended to join the family in Australia if the Australian

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Deborah Mcfarlane - 9789004246461 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 03:10:17PM via free access BRITAIN & JAPAN: BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAITSVOLUMEVIII government would permit him to do so:‘I am not on especially good terms with the Australian Legation owing to the known pro-Japa- nese work in the past, but they should know that I have never been anti-British but clear and objective on the realities in the Far East.’45 He was denied entry. One of Gorman’s fellow-passengers on the exchange ships was the Catholic missionary Father LeoWard. He had contracted encephalitis during his mission in China and died just north of the Canary Islands. In a later interview Gorman said:

Obviously Fr.Ward was ailing but none of us knew the death load he was bearing as he celebrated Mass every morning in the saloons of the Tatuta Maru and the Narkunda. Like other persons, kept in the solitary cells of Japan, he had to endure the winter of 1941–42 without heat, with cold meals, without adequate exercise and, which he felt most severely, without his religious books. In fact, none of us was permitted to have reading matter of any kind until our verbal examinations were completed.46

During his own period of imprisonment, Gorman estimated that he was questioned up to fifty times by the Japanese who tried to prove a close association with members of the British embassy in Tokyo, and their suspicion that he used his position on the Japan Times & Adver- tiser as ‘a cloak’ for espionage on behalf of the British and American governments. Like many internees, Gorman’s health suffered and he lost considerable weight, which he attributed to anxiety over confinement and a perceived threat of execution.47 He later said of the experience:‘I bore no ill-feeling toward the Japanese whom I admire sincerely.’

IN BRITAIN On arrival in England 10 October 1942 Gorman was arrested by British Intelligence and Immigration (under Defence Regulation 18B), and detained in custody until his release two weeks later.48 He was ‘given a thorough grilling’ but later stated that he harboured no resentment towards the authorities.After being released he unsuccessfully applied for re-entry into Canada. In 1943 Gorman obtained work with the International News Ser- vice where his activities were watched. For a brief time he found work with the Camrose Group (owners of The Daily Telegraph) and later with the Kemsley group. An interesting note appears in their archives: ‘Gorman was On His Majesty’s Service from 1 July 1944 (although he remained formally on the Kemsley staff during his active service until his departure from Kemsley on 23 January 1945).’49 At fifty-six Gorman was too old for ‘active service’.

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Gorman next joined the staff of the London Evening Standard where he worked until shortly before his death in 1956. Two years earlier, Gorman’s daughter Catherine travelled from Australia to England to join him.To her surprise, in view of his religious affilia- tion, when she revealed her intention of joining a Carmelite order, he was furious and cited a recent case of an ex-nun suing her convent. They never spoke of it again. Because he was an impatient man, Catherine was relieved when Gorman’s death came quickly after a short illness. A week later a notice appeared in a London newspaper:

I was sorry to hear of the death last week of a friend George Gorman who was held in much respect by his colleagues. He was 68. Mr. Gorman was one of a team who daily composed the ‘Londoner’s Diary’ feature in the Evening Standard. It was he who was responsible for the many references to Catholic affairs in that paper’s most popular feature.A parishioner of the Italian church not far from the Standard’s offices, Mr. Gorman had edited papers in Canada, China and Japan, before going to the Standard 11 years ago.

Aileen Gorman in Australia eventually found work on the Daily Mirror in Sydney and remained in written correspondence with her husband until his death. Catherine Gorman entered Bridell Carmel, Wales.

CONCLUSIONS George Gorman was a complex and controversial individual, with an abiding respect and admiration for Japan. His personal journals, his thousands of photographs and most of his letters have been lost, and we may never arrive at a definitive assessment of his motives and loyalties. However in taking a stand on discrimination against the Japanese inVancouver and,a decade earlier,fighting to defend Britain,his deci- sion in both events, was clearly one of conscience. Gorman’s support for Japan grew out of deep regard and friendship, and was not one of expediency.And while his Irish sensibilities may have antagonized the British establishment, some believed Gorman remained fundamen- tally loyal to Britain. Charges of disloyalty, ‘treason’ – even possible espionage – have been levelled against Gorman throughout his career and later. Certainly he was a propagandist for Japanese interests in China, but after Pearl Harbor and his arrest by Japanese authorities, there is no evidence that he performed any services against the allies. Reports suggest that Gorman was in contact with British authorities during the immediate pre-war period. His wife Aileen intimated

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Deborah Mcfarlane - 9789004246461 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 03:10:17PM via free access BRITAIN & JAPAN: BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAITSVOLUMEVIII in her letter to Col. Lloyd that Gorman was ‘assisting’ the British embassy. The fact that she stated this to Australian military intelligence could have been easily disproven. Gorman had an ongoing dialogue with British officials and while he penned a number of anti-British screeds under the pseudonyms P. Ohara and McGinty, these may well have been written to support his credibility with the Japanese.50 We therefore must look to the two pivotal events in China during the decade for judging Gorman’s performance as a pro-Japanese writer: the occupation of Manchuria and the establishment of the Manchukuo regime, for which Gorman was an unapologetic pro- moter; and the Japanese war of aggression against China, which com- menced in 1937. A lifelong outsider since his youth in Liverpool and driven by a strong desire to explore new territories and ideas,the utopian schemes of the Japanese for a new Manchurian state doubtless impressed him. During the decade, well over a quarter of a million Japanese agrarian settlers had migrated to opportunity in Manchukuo.51 The promise of land, civil order and commerce appealed to many Western observ- ers, who were also mindful that Manchukuo served as a buffer state against a perennial threat from Bolshevik Russia. Following the Mukden incident, Gorman and other available cor- respondents filed their reports for the London newspapers. But in his duties as a spokesman for the South Manchuria Railway and its English-language publication, Gorman’s writings remained primarily of a public relations nature. The liaison becomes darker as the years progress to Japan’s larger war against China’s central government. Japan had kept tight control over information from the front, but it is naive to think that Gorman was unaware of at least some of the realities. Caravan magazine, which had been launched as a travelogue and cultural bi-monthly, later carried stories of geo-political analysis. His work for the Peking Chronicle and the Japan Times & Advertiser cannot be fully assessed until the archives become available, but the papers were widely read in the expatriate community, where Gorman was often persona non grata. With a family living in harm’s way and on the payroll of his Japa- nese sponsors, Gorman had painted himself into a corner, treading a fine line between neutrality and collaboration. Some British reports cast doubts about the degree of sincere cooperation he had rendered the Japanese government and available records do not show that Gor- man supported Japan’s militaristic aims. Whatever impressions his contemporaries or modern scholars may have, the British government did not recognize his activities as treason, because his repatriation process was highly unusual – the British

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Deborah Mcfarlane - 9789004246461 Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 03:10:17PM via free access GEORGE GORMAN (1888–1956) consular authorities had placed him on a priority list for evacuation and once back in England he gained work in the very field which would have been closed to a ‘traitor’.

‘The whole of life lies in the verb seeing’ – Teilhard de Chardin.

ENDNOTES 1 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report includes a letter from Margaret ‘Peggy’ Robertson inVancouver, BC (aunt of Aileen Gorman), to her sister Jean Robertson in LA, California, in which she outlines her concern for her niece. 2 University of Oregon Alumni Directory 1878–1925, University Press, The Alumni Association, UO Libraries. Isago Gomyo, LLB, 1915. [https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/11166], Isago Gomyo¯, LLB, 1915. Japan’s Consul toVancouver 1923–1925 (ref: Consul Japan,Vancouver, Canada) 3 McDonald, Ian and O’Keefe, Betty, Canadian Holy War:A Story of Clans, Tongs, Murder, and Bigotry (Victoria, BC: Heritage House, 2000), p. 90. Editorial appeared in Vancouver Sun on 20 December 1925. 4 Macgillivray, George, A History of FortWilliam and Port Arthur Newspapers from 1875, (Toronto: Bryant Press, 1968), pp. 30–2. George Gorman is noted as industrial commissioner, 1911. 5 Library and Archives Canada: Soldiers of the First World War – Archives: Attestation Paper 23 September 1914. George Gorman joined the Cana- dian Expeditionary Forces and attained the rank of Company Sergeant Major. Regimental no. 21366 [http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ databases/cef/001042–119.01–e.php?&id_nbr=421254&interval=20& &PHPSESSID=tkecoooeli59c7sbj4fp4ep680] 6 Gorman, George, With the Little Black Devils (pub. Fort William Daily- Times Journal, 26 December 1917), Thunder Bay Historical Society archives, Ontario, Canada. Courtesy of archivist Tory Tronrud. 7 Macgillivray, George, A History of FortWilliam and Port Arthur Newspapers from 1875, (Toronto: Bryant Press, 1968), pp. 30–2. George Gorman is noted as editor of Fort William Daily-Times Journal between 1920 and 1923 8 Roy, Patricia E., Triumph of Citizenship Asian immigration:The Japanese and Chinese in Canada, 1941 to 1967, (Vancouver: UBCPress, 2007), p. 9. Victor Odlum, federal election in Canada, 1921. 9 Kerwin, Scott, Janet Smith Bill Of 1924 and The Language of Race and Nation in British Columbia, BC Studies, no.121, (1999), Spring (p. 87) BC Studies University of British Columbia - [http://ojs.library.ubc. ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/view/1488], ‘yellow journalism’ – Vancouver Star. 10 Lang, Marjory, and Hale, Linda (1990) Women of The World and Other Dailies:The Life andTimes ofVancouver Newspaperwomen in the First Quarter

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of the Twentieth Century* [http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/ article/view/1342] (p. 22, para. 3 of 5) UBC Library - Aileen Gorman (nee Brown) was society co-editorVancouver Sun. 11 O’Connor, Peter, The English-language Press Networks of East Asia 1918–1945, (Kent: Global Oriental, 2010), p. 80. Shiba Sometaro was president (owner) of JapanTimes in 1926 12 Gaimusho¯ kiroku: Foreign Ministry records (Japan). Reports confirming Gorman as chief editor of theVancouver Star and as taking a conciliatory attitude to Japan, 17 July 1926. 13 O’Connor, Peter, The English-language Press Networks of East Asia 1918– 1945 (Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2010), p. 33. In 1919 Japan’s emerging Foreign Ministry network founded the North China Standard newspaper. 14 O’Connor, Peter, The English-language Press Networks of East Asia 1918–1945 (Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2010), p. 228n97. After the North China Standard closed in 1930 George Gorman became an adviser to the Manchukuo government in Xingjing. 15 Gaimusho¯ kiroku: Foreign Ministry records. From Consulate General Mukden to Foreign MinisterTokyo regarding field trip.George Gorman. London Daily Telegraph correspondent named, 9 December 1931 (‘banditry’ - as the resistance was described, in justifying Japan’s action to the League of Nations). 16 FO 395/514, folios 111 to 114a. Report dated 27 November 1934.The Far Eastern Department considered pressing The Daily Telegraph to have Gorman removed as its special correspondent 17 ‘Monarch from the Gods’,Manchurian Daily News,enthronement supplement, 1934. Private collection. Courtesy of Chris Mahoney. 18 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report states the Peking Chronicle contained ‘typically Irish intolerances’. 19 FO FO371/18143, folios 201 to 213. Report dated 19 June 1934. From Consul General Garatin (Harbin). Extract from Gorman’s report (7 pp.), detailing Soviet military preparations. Published in Manchurian Daily News, 11 June 1934. 20 O’Connor, Peter, The English-language Press Networks of East Asia 1918– 1945, (Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2010), p. 247. Gorman had a key role in bringing the Peking Chronicle under Japanese control. 21 FO371/22155, folios 66 to 73. Report dated 21 April 1938. From the Right Honorable Viscount Halifax British Embassy, Peking. Copy to: Embassies in Shanghai, Tokyo, Tientsin, Mukden. The same report includes a newspaper clipping of Gorman’s article ‘All the Fun of the Jehol Railway’, published in the Peking Chronicle, 10 April 1938. 22 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report alleges Gorman received money from Japanese military for anti-British propaganda.

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23 Gaimusho¯ kiroku: Foreign Ministry records (Japan). Reference: C04121427400. Creator: Chief of Staff, I Group, 7 September 1939, Ministry of Army. Dismissal of chief editor G.W. Gorman, Peking Chronicle, English newspaper, directly run by I Group. 24 O’Connor, Peter, The English-language Press Networks of East Asia 1918– 1945, (Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2010) p. 238.The Japan Times and the Japan Advertiser were combined under a new masthead, The Japan Times & Advertiser, under the control of the Gaimushō. Gorman was taken on as news editor. 25 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report states an informant claimed Gorman was adviser to the Japanese Foreign office 26 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report notes an informant having stated Gorman worked for British Embassy 27 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from theWar DepartmentWashington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report states a Canadian informant pointed out that opinions about Gorman were not unanimous. 28 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report includes newspaper clippings of ‘Lord Haw Haw of the East’. Published in Melbourne Sun (19 November 1941) and Sydney Morning Herald (19 November 1941). 29 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C.,15 May 1944.Letter addressed to InspectorWilson,M.P.I Section, dated 13 December 1941.The same report includes mention of Col. Moore Cosgrove, Canadian Trade Commissioner, Sydney, having endorsed Aileen Gorman’s application for work at Australian Censorship. Cosgrove stated he knew the Gormans in Peking for a period of four years. Col. Cosgrove was later the signatory for Dominion of Canada, accepting the Japanese Surrender, 2 September 1945. 30 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report includes letter from Aileen Gorman letter to Col. Longford Lloyd, Director of Military Intelligence in Canberra. Press attaché of the Tokyo embassy H.N. Brain, later Sir Norman, was a member of the Japan Consular Service. 31 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George

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William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. In the same report,Australian Censorship Summary No. 46 for period 14 October to 10 November 1941. Gorman reportedly stated that two months prior to the outbreak of war, he broadcast, presumably under the auspices of the Japanese Propaganda Department, over Radio JOKA [sic] to Australia and the United States on the intention of Japan to remain out of the war, which intention Gorman stated he firmly believed to be true. 32 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. In the same report includes an Australian Censorship Summary No. 46 for period 14 October to 10 November 1941. Australian Military Censorship reports - Internal Conditions in other countries - Japan. 33 O’Connor, Peter, The English-language Press Networks of East Asia 1918– 1945, (Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2010), p. 250. Even before the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, German embassy rep- resentatives had involved themselves in press control in China as in Japan, adding further occupational hazards to writers on the foreign-owned English-language press. 34 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report states Gorman’s newspaper work was the object of many denunciations. 35 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report states a claim that Gorman was a notorious liar. 36 FOFO 371/31839 George W. Gorman signed affidavit, 13 September 1942. Personal account regarding his arrest and detention by Japanese authorities, 8 December 1941. 37 FO371/31839 George W. Gorman signed affidavit, 13 September 1942. Regarding a letter Gorman prepared for R.H. Scott on ways of conducting anti-German and pro-British propaganda. Sir Robert Scott, was the subject of a biographical portrait by Peter Lowe in Britain and Japan: Bio- graphical Portraits,VolumeVII, ed. Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental 2010. 38 FO 371/31839 George Gorman signed affidavit, 13 September 1941. Report states according to a confidential British source, Gorman’s four- month solitary confinement was due to the discovery by Japanese officials of the notes he prepared for R.H. Scott. From the same report, in this connection, it is noted that Tatsuki Fujii, in his Japanese propaganda booklet, Singapore Assignment (1943), alleged that R.H. Scott was also the Chief of the British Espionage System in that area. 39 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington

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through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report from confidential informant who stating the discovery of a letter from Gorman to R.H. Scott was the reason for his four months of solitary confinement. 40 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report states Gorman appeared to be under suspicion of the Japanese on board the diplomatic exchange ship. 41 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C,. 15 May 1944. Report includes a letter from Gorman to his sister, detailing an offer of work from Col.Yokohama. 42 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Paul Gore-Booth, later Sir Paul and on retirement Lord, became permanent under-secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 43 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report includes a letter from Gorman to his sister, about having been cautioned by Paul Gore-Booth (Second Secretary) against accepting Col.Yokohama’s offer of work in Shanghai. 44 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report includes a letter from Gorman to his sister, claiming the British embassy took the wrong view regarding Col.Yokohama’s offer of work in Shanghai 45 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report includes a letter from Gorman to his sister, regarding his intention of joining his wife and children in Australia 46 UK Catholic Herald Weekly (11 December 1942), p.1.‘Newspaper man back from Japan, tells of the death of a great missionary’ [http://archive. catholicherald.co.uk/article/11th-december-1942/1/newspaperman- back-from-japan-tells-of-the-death-of 47 FO 371/31839 George Gorman’s signed affidavit, 13 September 1941. Statement regarding Gorman’s examinations by the Japanese authorities. 48 Regulation 18B of the Defence (General) Regulations 1939. UK National Archives, ref - HO45/25743 [http://www.nationalarchives. gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=5968375&CATL N=6&accessmethod=5 49 Kemsley Staff List is held at the News International archives. It was noted, George Gorman was OHMS from 1 July 1944. The Kemsley

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archival material was with conservators at the time of enquiry. Courtesy of archivist Eamon Dyas. 50 Commonwealth of Australia Security Service: G2978/43DD, Director General of Security Queensland, report on Aileen Brown and George William Gorman received from the War Department Washington through C.I.C., 15 May 1944. Report states George Gorman was said to have written many articles under the pen names of McGinty and P. Ohara, which were pro-Japanese and ‘naturally’ anti-British. 51 Tucker, David (2005) City Planning without Cities: Order and chaos in Uto- pian Manchukuo, in Tamanoi, Mariko Asano (ed.) Crossed Histories: Man- churia in the Age of Empire (Honolulu: University of Hawaii / Association of Asian Studies, 2005), p. 53. Over 300,000 Japanese agricultural colo- nists arrived in Manchukuo before 1945. Japanese planners proposed a network of 50 new Manchurian villages to relieve domestic Japanese rural poverty in the 1930s.

I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Hugh Cor- tazzi, Dr Peter O’Connor, Peter Bennett, Robert Robertson and not least, my family, for helping to bring my grandfather’s story to life

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