John Price. Orienting Canada: Race, Empire and the Transpacific

John Price. Orienting Canada: Race, Empire and Transpacific. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2011. 445 pp. Chronology. Notes. Select Bibliography. Index. $85.00 hc. $34.95 sc. In 1951, speaking to an audience in Vancouver, Lester Pearson said: 'This is a part of Canada which is most interested in problems, but there should be no part of Canada that should not be interested in Pacific (253). Pearson's remark underlines first of two main premises of Price's study, that Canada's diplomatic history has overlooked and marginalized Asia. The second is that through understanding intersection of race and empire, Canada can be situated in a transpacific context. Price's study challenges dominant narratives and methodology of Canada's diplomatic history: Price disagrees with portrayal of Canada moving from isolationism to internationalism; he disputes Eurocentric historical accounts; he integrates race and racism into foreign policy decision-making; and he grounds his study in stories of 'average' men and women, illuminating the often unspoken relationship between race and (2). Orienting Canada covers approximately fifty years, from 1907 race riots in Vancouver to Geneva negotiations on war in Indochina in mid-1950s. The book has two main parts with 1945 as dividing line. China, Japan, and Korea are main Asian countries discussed. The British Empire dominates first half. The United States replaces Britain as imperial centre in second half and communism is touchstone against which links between race and empire are traced. Throughout book, Price weaves together three narrative strands: personal narratives that focus on experiences of individuals and families; Canadian involvement; and a global/transnational account of events like Second World War, Cold War, and onset of decolonization. The first half of book explores how Chinese and Japanese immigrants to Canada responded to conflicts between Japan and China, focusing on period from Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 until end of war with bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and postwar Tokyo War Tribunals. The interactions of Japanese and Chinese immigrants--some of whom were Canadian citizens--with social groups, political movements, as well as governments, reveal how line separating domestic and international spheres was porous and developments at home and abroad influenced conceptions of citizenship and national identity. Price also highlights how racial ideas influenced foreign policy. He defines race in terms of social relations moderated by power (5). But overall treatment of race is not complete. The history of how racial constructions took shape and evolved, as well as core ideas that sustained racialized outlooks, remain somewhat opaque. …

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