The Dominion and the Rising Sun: Canada Encounters Japan, 1929-41 (review)

From the title, a reader might logically expect to find in Meehan's study an analysis of diplomatic relations between Canada and Japan during the critical years prior to the Pacific war. That initial impression tends to be confirmed by the choice of dates to bookend the discussion: from the formal exchange of ministers in 1929 to the withdrawal of legation staff from Tokyo in 1941. Despite the author's assertion that Japan was "terra incognita," Canada had "encountered" Japan in the late nineteenth century, and developed an extensive relationship centered around trade, immigration, and missionary activity. While the author promises "new insights" into Canada's diplomatic coming of age, the focus here is largely on the familiar territory of the North Atlantic Triangle and Canada's difficulties in balancing its ties to Britain with the growing importance of the United States. Japan's determination to become a power in Asia greatly complicated the problem for Canada of finding some safe middle ground between her North Atlantic partners. Most of Meehan's discussion is taken up with the efforts of the Canadian government and its Department of External Affairs to straddle the growing distance between London and Washington in their response to Japan's expansionism.

Meanwhile the situation in East Asia is handled at roughly the level of a survey text, with more space devoted to the peculiarities of Herbert Marler (Canada's Minister) than to the complications and cross currents that triggered conflicting responses in Whitehall and the White House. China is treated as monolithic, despite the struggle among nationalists, communists, and war lords, while Japan appears as the one-dimensional villain. Imperialism, Meehan explains (p. 97), was generally discredited in the West after 1919, which might have surprised the natives of Indochina, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and the hapless "beneficiaries" of the Open Door, not to mention Canadians who celebrated the achievements of the British Empire. While the author usefully reminds us that Canadian business firms were active in pursuing opportunities in Japan and Manchukuo, his tendency to treat conservatives, imperialists, business interests, and Japan apologists as interchangeable is unhelpful, as is the suggestion that Canadian business was complicit in Japanese expansionism (p. 200) while acknowledging that evidence of complicity is difficult to find. Conversely, he has no trouble claiming that street protests over Manchuria reflected the emerging role of public opinion in the making of foreign policy without offering any evidence that the protests affected External Affairs' views. Similarly, he repeatedly describes Canada as "appeasing" Japan, despite Canada's failure to support British efforts at conciliation, its tilt toward the U.S. hard line, its refusal to recognize Manchukuo, and its decision to restrict exports of strategic metals.

In sum, Canada and the Rising Sun is a study of Canada's foreign policy and struggle for autonomy with the troubles in Asia as the lens, rather than a nuanced examination of Canada's relations with Japan. The author includes a useful bibliography but offers little in the way of fresh insights into Canada's role in the Far East or its dilemmas in Western diplomacy.