Article

E. Herbert Norman

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited October 20, 2014

E. Herbert Norman, diplomat, scholar (b at Karuizawa, Japan 1 Sept 1909; d at Cairo, Egypt 4 Apr 1957); he studied at University of Toronto and Harvard, and, having joined the Department of External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs and International Trade), was posted to Japan, 1940-42.

E. Herbert Norman, diplomat, scholar (b at Karuizawa, Japan 1 Sept 1909; d at Cairo, Egypt 4 Apr 1957); he studied at University of Toronto and Harvard, and, having joined the Department of External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs and International Trade), was posted to Japan, 1940-42. In 1946 he returned there with the Allied occupation's Office of Counter Intelligence, and published extensively on Japan. His career was blighted by charges that he had been a Communist during the 1930s. The charges were true enough, but Minister of External Affairs Lester B. Pearson affirmed his confidence in Norman, kept him in the diplomatic service, and sent him as ambassador to Egypt. When the US Senate again publicized charges that Norman was a security risk, he committed suicide.