Tim Cook - The Fight for History: 75 Years of Forgetting, Remembering, and Remaking Canadas Second World War

Nobody would be interested in reading about the Second World War after 1948, said Canadian minister of national defence Brooke Claxton shortly after Hitler and his Nazis were defeated. Claxtons flippant comment was made to Colonel Charles Stacey, who was the armys official historian and who would become Canadas most influential military historian. At the time, Stacey was frustrated by the governments lack of interest in publishing an official historyone based on government and military records during the war that would have been closed to civilian researchers because of security concernsand he would come up against this political ambivalence for years to come. He found that politicians were worried by, even afraid of, what a historian might uncover and reveal to the public. But Stacey refused to let Canadas war effort be forgotten, and he railed against the politicians, eventually overseeing or writing several foundational army histories, as well as Arms, Men, and Governments, a crucial 1970 study on Canadas wartime policy. Despite such successes, Stacey and other historically minded Canadians who wished to chronicle the countrys wartime story would also find themselves struggling against inertia, fear, and apathy among the general public. It was not only distrustful politicians but also many Canadians who were uninterested in celebrating or commemorating Canadas role in the Second World War.

One of the challenges that Stacey and others faced was that even as war had shaped Canadas destiny over centuries, Canadians did not see themselves as a warrior people. From Indigenous conflicts to the wars of empire that made Canada a British colony, and from the pre-Confederation colonies resisting the incursions of the United States to the shattering effects of Canadas Great War, armed conflict had transformed the nation time and time again. War would determine whether we would be ruled by the English or French or Americans; it would forge a reputation for Canadians on the world stage, and it would nearly rend the country apart before ushering in developments like income tax or the federal vote for women. And yet despite these epic changes, some joked, Canadians didnt pay much attention to the legacy of war because they were too busy trying to stay warm. Others concluded that although Canadas destiny was shaped by war, without a revolutionary war or a civil war to define itself, its leaders emphasized gradual constitutional changes in explaining the countrys political character. Canadas isolated geography and alliance systems certainly allowed it to avoid spending huge sums on defence. Stacey offered a famous dictum on the countrys condition: Canada is an unmilitary community: Warlike her people have often been forced to be; military they have never been.

Almost 1.1 million Canadians served in uniform during the Second World War. They contributed to the Allied victory in battles and campaigns around the world. But they left behind loved ones for several years, and some 45,000 were killed and never came home.

And yet the suggestion that somehow Canadians would be indifferent to reading about the Second World War only a few years after it ended seemed absurd given Canadas enormous contributions. Canada mobilized early for the long fight against Hitler, his Nazis, and other fascists, and by wars end the country of 11.5 million had close to 1.1 million men and women in uniform. Choosing to declare war independently against Germany, Canada had raised substantial formations to fight in the air, at sea, and on land in the global war. For six years, Canada supported its alliesprimarily Britain and the United Statesas a junior if equal member of the Western alliance. Canadas participation was all the more important after France, Belgium, and the rest of Western Europe were defeated and occupied by the Germans. The price of victory had been high, with 45,000 Canadians killed and another 55,000 physically wounded. Thousands more suffered from wounds to the mind and spirit. The survivors came home and were rewarded with generous benefits from the government that enabled them to build new lives and a new country.

With veterans making up one in three adult males in the 1950s, along with the more than 50,000 women who served, it would be easy to assume that the aftermath of the Second World War would permeate Canadian society. But that was not the case. In fact, the war was rapidly pushed aside, evoking little relevance in the fast-changing postwar years and for much of the twentieth century.

This book seeks to track and untangle the complicated, contested, and ever-shifting meaning of that war over the past seventy-five years. Canadas commitment to winning, whatever the cost to its citizens, forever changed the trajectory of the nation. The gears of the war effort drove massive political, economic, social, and cultural transformations across society. Government intrusion into the lives of Canadians was furthered by the war through the massive mobilization of resources and, in the immediate postwar period, through an unparalleled effort to help service personnel integrate back into society. The war created a million new veterans who needed to be treated with respect; the injured had to receive care. Meanwhile, Canadas dead were honoured to assuage the grief of next of kin and the soldiers communities.