Exhibit : Historical Perspectives on Modern Japanese Science, October 6 - 31, 2011, East Atrium, Thompson Library
- Ann Marie L. Davis
- Beth Snapp
Selected Materials from The Ohio State University Libraries Collections on display in conjunction with the conference on
Science, Technology and Medicine in East Asia: Policy, Practice, and Implications in a Global Context
Mershon Center, October 7 - 9, 2011
Japanese collections include a wide range of resources supporting historical research on science, technology and medicine in Japan. Selected materials range from a course catalog that Ohio State’s Professor Thomas Corwin Mendenhall (1841-1924) brought back from Tokyo University where he taught physics ca. 1878-1880, to a game highlighting the work of Nobel laureate Hideki Yukawa (Physics, 1949), to research resources about Japanese biological and chemical warfare, and books about the careers of Japanese women scientists.
Newspaper cartoons document Einstein’s visit to Japan in 1922, a cartoonist’s ideas about the future of the telephone (1924), popular awareness of scientific advances in the treatment of infectious diseases, and reactions to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 in the United States. With regard to the latter, an American citizen who was particularly incensed by the passage of that act, which excluded Japanese from American citizenship, was Elmer Sperry, a leading American engineer and businessman. As an organizer of the World Engineering Congress of 1929, he took the initiative to locate it in Tokyo.
The exhibit includes materials from that congress to which scientists and businessmen traveled from all over the world. The exhibit was mounted with the cooperation of many departments in the Libraries. It includes resources from Rare Books and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, as well as from the general circulating collections.
Selected Works in the Exhibit
Science
First electric light on the Ginza in Tokyo, 1882
An image of a woodblock print inserted in the company history of the Tokyo Electric Company, Ltd published in celebration of its 50th anniversary in 1940.
Tōkyō Denki Kabushiki Kaisha Gojūnenshi
Yasui Shōtarō
東京電氣株式會社五十年史 / 安井正太郎
Tōkyō : Tōkyō Shibaura Denki, 1940
Library: Rare Book Collections
Teijiro Muramatsu. “Electricity: Generating Light for the New Era,”
Tokyo, Japan : Hitachi, Ltd.,No. 124
Library: Book Depository
Yukawa Hideki – Japan’s first Nobel laureate (Physics, 1949)
Niels Bohr visited Japan in 1937 at the request of Yoshio Nishina (protégé of Bohr and patron of Hideki Yukawa).
The excerpted panel from the manga on the right shows Yukawa and Bohr in conversation at a ryokan in Kyoto, during Bohr’s 1937 visit to Japan. Yukawa is kneeling at the feet of Bohr, who is shown wearing a yukata, relaxing in a wicker chair. Yukawa seems to be ingratiating himself to the famous physicist, asking him how he likes Japan, but his real purpose is to present his research.
In the two pages open in the manga on the left, the full ramifications of the encounter with Bohr in Japan for Yukawa become clear. The page on the right (2d row up from the bottom) shows Bohr talking with Nishina and Yukawa. Bohr is questioning Yukawa about why he wants to introduce the possibility of a previously unknown fundamental particle. The following page describes new research by CalTech physicists that suggests Yukawa’s theory has merit. Although Bohr was relatively slow to accept Yukawa’s way of thinking, his ideas are receiving recognition.
Yukawa Hideki to Tomonaga Shin'ichirō : Futatsu no Nōberu Butsurigaku Shō
Tokinosu Naoki
湯川秀樹と朝永振一郎 : 二つのノーベル物理学賞 / 鴇巣直樹 画麻生はじめ
Tokyo : Maruzen, 1994
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Manga Jinbutsu Kagaku no Rekishi
Yamazaki Masakatsu, Kimoto Tadaaki
漫画人物科学の歴史 / 山崎正勝, 木本忠昭
Tokyo : Horupu Shuppan, 1990-1992
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Atomic Board Game: A Science Education Manga
Genshi Sugoroku: Kagaku Kyōiku Manga
原子双六 科学教育漫画 : 湯川博士ノーベル賞受賞記念/下馬三郎画
Nihon Hatsumei Shinbunsha, ca 1950 日本発明新聞社
Fukui, Japan’s first Nobel laureate in Chemistry in 1981 for contributions to chemical reaction theory.
How To Win The Nobel Prize :An Unexpected Life in Science
J Michael Bishop.
Harvard University Press, 2003.
Kagaku to Watakushi : Nōberushō Kagakusha Fukui Ken’ichi
Yamabe Tokio
化学と私 : ノーベル賞科学者福井謙一/山辺時雄 編
Kyoto : Kagaku Dōjin, 1982.
化学同人
OSU Book Depository
Nōberu-shō no Shūhen : Fukui Ken’ichi Hakushi to Kyōto Daigaku no Jiyū na Gakufū
Yonezawa Teijirō, Nagata Chikayoshi cho
ノーベル賞の周辺 : 福井謙一博士と京都大学の自由な学風 / 米澤貞次郎, 永田親義
Kyoto: Kagaku Dōjin, 1999
化学同人
OSU Book Depository
Kagaku to Ningen o Kataru
Fukui Ken'ichi, Esaki Reona
科学と人間を語る / 福井謙一, 江崎玲於奈
Tokyo, 1982.
OSU Book Depository
Women Scientists of Japan
Onna Hakushi Retsuden / Nagashima Yuzuru
女博士列傳 / 長島讓
Tokyo : Kagaku Chishiki Fukyūkai : Shōwa 12 [1937]
OSU Book Depository
Blazing a Path : Japanese Women’s Contributions to Modern Science
Tokyo : Committee for the Encouragement of Future Scientists, 2001.
OSU Book Depository
My Life : Twenty Japanese Women Scientists
edited by Yoshihide Kozai ... [et al.].
Tōkyō : Uchida Rokakuho, 2001.
OSU Book Depository
Kimi ni Tsuite Ikō : Nyōbō wa Uchū o Mezashita [biography of astronaut, Chiaki Mukai by her husband] / Mukai Makio
君について行こう : 女房は宇宙をめざした / 向井万起男
Tōkyō : Kōdansha, 1995 (1996 printing)
OSU Book Depository
Gift of Honda of America Family
Medicine
Infectious Diseases
In the early twentieth century discussion of research about infectious diseases in Japan was so widespread that it became part of political parlance. In this manga from 1922, Prime Minister Korekiyo Takahashi (1854-1936) is depicted as a doctor dealing with political issues as “infections.”
On the first shelf below, Shibasaburo Kitasato (1852-1931), Japan’s foremost bacteriologist, is depicted with Robert Koch (1843-1910), his mentor. Also shown are Paul Ehrlich and Kiyoshi Shiga, Kitasato’s colleague. Robert Koch visited Japan in 1908. Kitasato gained world fame for his work on tetanus and the co-discovery of natural immunity.
The second shelf contains two educational manga about Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928), who discovered the spirochete that causes paresis, a psychotic disorder. The cover of one manga shows Noguchi with the Rockefeller Institute building in New York, where he conducted research, behind him. The other manga is open to a page showing his elation at achieving his important discovery while conveying the news to his wife, Mary, and his mentor, Simon Flexner (1863-1946), director of the Rockefeller Institute.
The third shelf contains examples of Japanese military research in bio-chemical weaponry. The 731 project was infamous for its experimentation on captive human subjects.
Prime Minister Korekiyo Takahashi (1854-1936) as a doctor
Infectious Diseases 傳染病
Jiji Manga 57 (March 26, 1922)
Cartoonist: Rakuten Kitazawa
時事漫画 / 北沢楽天画
Tokyo: Jiji Shinpōsha
時事新報社
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Shibasaburo Kitasato with Robert Koch, and Noguchi Hideyo
Omoshiro Kagakushi Raiburarī v. 11
おもしろ科学史ライブラリー
Tōkyō : Akane Shobō, 1993-1994
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Noguchi Hideyo: Gakushū Manga Sekai no Denki
野口英世: 学習漫画世界の伝記
Tōkyō : Shūeisha, 2002
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Noguchi Hideyo : Densenbyō ni Inochi o Kaketa Igaku no Senshi
野口英世 : 伝染病に命をかけた医学の戦士
Shogakkan, 1996.
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
731
Nihon no kagaku heiki. 1, Hōheiyō gasudan no hyōshiki to kōzō
Tatsuya Yamamoto; Daisuke Kusanagi
日本の化学兵器. 1, 砲兵用ガス弾の標識と構造 / 山本達也,草薙大輔
Zennihon Gunsō Kenkyūkai, Heisei 22 [2010]
[出版地不明] 全日本軍装研究会, 2010.
OSU Thompson Library 3M East Asian Stacks
731-Butai, Saikinsen Shiryō Shūsei [electronic resource] [ Japanese biological warfare, Unit 731 : official declassified records ]
Kondō Shōji
731部隊・細菌戦資料集成 / 近藤昭二
Tōkyō : Kashiwa Shobō, 2003.
OSU Book Depository
Yamagiwa Katsusaburo
During World War I Yamagiwa and his associate, Ichikawa, became the first in the world to create cancer in the lab by painting coal tar on rabbits’ ears. The manga shows their research underway. Once Yamagiwa realized that he had succeeded, he composed a haiku in celebration which is quoted in J. Michael Bishop’s autobiography.
Omoshiro kagakushi raiburarī v.11
おもしろ科学史ライブラリー
Tokyo : Akane Shobō, 1993-1994
東京 : あかね書房
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
“Experimental Study of the Pathogenesis of Carcinoma”
Katsusaburo Yamagiwa and Koichi Ichikawa
The Journal of Cancer Research. V. 3 (1918), 1-29.
OSU Book Depository
Technology
Thomas Corwin Mendenhall (1841-1924)
Mendenhall was the first professor appointed at the founding of the Ohio State University. Shortly thereafter, in 1878 he was invited to teach physics at Tokyo University, where he explored various physical phenomena, including gravity and the “magic mirror” (19th century romanization: MAKIO). Back at Ohio State, undergraduates chose that name for their student yearbook, with the conviction that a yearbook is a “mirror of student life” – and it continues to be published under that name until today. On exhibit is the first volume, which was published with the characters for “magic mirror” on the cover.
Also on exhibit is the course catalog of Tokyo University which Mendenhall brought back to Ohio State (Note: the 19th century romanization for Tokyo was TOKIO).
The Makio
Columbus : Published by the fraternities and literary societies of Ohio State University, 1880-
OSU The Thompson Library
An American Scientist in Early Meiji Japan : the Autobiographical Notes of Thomas C. Mendenhall
Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 1989.
OSU Book Depository
Tōkyō Daigaku Hō Ri Bungakubu Ichiran : Meiji 12, 13-nen
東京大學法理文學部一覽. 明治十二年, 十三年 / 東京大學法理文學部
Tōkyō, 1880.
Library: Rare Book Collections
Telephone
Rakuten Kitazawa’s vision for a telephone of the future: “Electric Imaging Mirror”
Jiji Manga 72 (July 9, 1922)
Cartoonist: Rakuten Kitazawa
時事漫画 / 北沢楽天画
Tokyo: Jiji Shinpōsha
時事新報社
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Hirakareta teretopia e no michi
開かれたテレトピアへの道 : 目で見る日本電信電話公社の三十年 / [制作 每日新聞社]
Tōkyō : Nihon Denshin Denwa Kōsha, Shōwa 57 [1982]
[東京] : 日本電信電話公社, 昭和 57 [1982]
THO Special Collections Rare Books Remote Storage
The Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924 effectively forbade Japanese from gaining citizenship in the US. The cartoon shows a smug Uncle Sam eating a California watermelon, while a Japanese farmer looks on from outside. Despite this legislation, communication in science, technology and medicine between Japanese and Americans actually continued until Pearl Harbor (December, 1941).
Cultivating the Wasteland 荒蕪地をろ開墾して
Jiji Manga 161 May 4 (1924)
Cartoonist: Rakuten Kitazawa
時事漫画 / 北沢楽天画
Tokyo: Jiji Shinpōsha
時事新報社
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
World Engineering Congress (Tokyo, 1929)
However, one American citizen who was particularly incensed by this political action was Elmer Sperry, a leading American engineer and businessman. Sperry, who had many friends in Japan, was deeply concerned about the deteriorating official climate between the US and Japan created as a result of the Immigration Act. Therefore, as an organizer of the World Engineering Congress, he took the initiative to locate it in Tokyo. Held in 1929, it was the first truly international meeting of its kind in Japan. The second shelf shows labels for conference attendees to use on their baggage during excursions arranged for them outside Tokyo that were printed in the conference proceedings, along with a guide prepared for them.
Elmer Sperry; Inventor and Engineer
Hughes, Thomas Parke
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971.
OSU Science and Engineering Library
Proceedings: World Engineering Congress (1st : 1929 )
Tokyo, World Engineering Congress, 1931.
OSU Book Depository
The Four Immigrants Manga
The Four Immigrants Manga, on the left, portrays the life of Japanese immigrants to the US in the early twentieth century.
The Four Immigrants Manga : a Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924
Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama ; translated, with an introduction and notes, by Frederik L. Schodt
Berkeley : Stone Bridge Press, 1999.
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum / Thompson Library
Manga Yonin Shosei / Henry Kiyama Yoshitaka cho
漫畵四人書生 / ヘンリー木山義喬
San Francisco : Kiyama Yoshitaka gashitsu, 1931.
サンフランシスコ : 木山義喬畵室, 昭和 6
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Einstein in Japan
Albert Einstein visited Japan in 1922. He learned of his Nobel prize shortly before or upon arriving in Japan, as shown on the page opened in the manga book. The passengers on the train in the newspaper cartoon are discussing Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Jiji Manga 82 September 17 (1922) What is Einstein's Theory of the Relativity ? アインスタインの相對性ツて何?
Cartoonist: Rakuten Kitazawa
時事漫画 / 北沢楽天画
Tokyo: Jiji Shinpōsha
時事新報社
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Ainshutain: Gakushū Manga Sekai no Denki
アインシュタイン: 学習漫画世界の伝記
Tōkyō : Shūeisha, 1992.
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Ningen Ainshutain to sōtaisei riron: Manga dare nimo wakaru
人間アインシュタインと相対性理論 : マンガ誰にもわかる / 渡辺正雄 + 金子務 監修 ; 犬上博史 作 ; 山本キクオー 画
Tokyo : Kōdansha, 1999
Library: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
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Contact Information
Ann Marie L. Davis, PhD, MLS
Associate Professor, Japanese Studies Librarian
davis.5257@osu.edu
The Ohio State University Libraries, 1858 Neil Ave Mall, Columbus, OH 43210