Sieve of war: the legacy of Jitsuro Nagura

Abstract

This paper contains a biographical sketch of the late Japanese number theorist Jitsuro Nagura (1901–68) based on material provided by his eldest son Riichi Nagura, and a synopsis of his two surviving mathematical papers, the first a well-known article on primes in short intervals, and the second an unpublished draft of a proof relating to complex polynomials.

This article is referred to by:

A remark on the paper ‘Sieve of war: the legacy of Jitsuro Nagura’ by Daniel Tisdale

Acknowledgements

For the biographical information in this note the author wishes to thank Jitsuro Nagura’s eldest son Professor Riichi Nagura, whose correspondence and documents, used here with his kind permission, bridge a long-standing gap in the historical record.

The author is indebted to his tutor for assistance with the unpublished note, and to Elena P for her thoughtful comments. Any errors herein are the author’s.