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Annals of Science Volume 47, 1990 - Issue 4
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Japan's secret war? ‘Instant’ scientific manpower and Japan's World War II atomic bomb project

Morris Fraser Low Department of Japanese Studies, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, Victoria, 3168, Australia
Pages 347-360 | Received 08 Nov 1989, Published online: 23 Aug 2006

  • Wilcox , Robert K. 1985 . Japan's Secret War New York
  • Dower , John W. 1986 . Japan's Secret War . Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , 43 ( 1 ) August–September : 61 – 62 .
  • This account is largely derived from three sources Hirosige Tetu Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History Tokyo 1965 169 184 Tetu Hirosige, Kagaku no Shakai-shi: Kindai Nihon no Kagaku Taisei (The Social History of Science: The Scientific Structure of Modern Japan) (Tokyo, 1973), pp. 200–22; Chikayoshi Kamatani, ‘The History of Research Organization in Japan’, Japanese Studies in the History of Sciencee, no. 2, (1963), 1–79.
  • Yoshioka , Hitoshi . 1984 . Science and Technology at the Turning Point: Founding the Technological State . Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory , 8 ( 3 ) : 21 – 39 . Fall (p. 26)
  • Hirosige . 1965 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 169 – 169 . Tokyo 175.
  • Hirosige . 1965 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 175 – 175 . Tokyo
  • Hirosige . 1965 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 178 – 178 . Tokyo
  • Hirosige . 1965 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 178 – 178 . Tokyo
  • Hirosige . 1973 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 207 – 207 . Tokyo
  • Hirosige . 1965 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 178 – 178 . Tokyo
  • Hirosige . 1973 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 211 – 211 . Tokyo
  • Hirosige . 1973 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 212 – 212 . Tokyo
  • Hirosige . 1973 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 214 – 214 . Tokyo
  • Hirosige . 1973 . Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History) 214 – 214 . Tokyo
  • Weiner , Charles . 1978 . Retroactive saber rattling?: A Note on Nuclear Physics in Japan . Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , April : 10 – 12 . (p. 10)
  • Hirosige , Tetu . 1974 . “ Social Conditions for Pre-war Japanese Research in Nuclear Physics ” . In Science and Society in Modern Japan Edited by: Nakayama , Shigeru , Swain , David L. and Yagi , Eri . 202 – 220 . Tokyo (p. 217)
  • Shapley , Deborah . 1978 . Nuclear Weapons History: Japan's Wartime Bomb Projects Revealed . Science , 199 January : 152 – 157 . 13 (p. 153)
  • Weiner . 1978 . Retroactive saber rattling?: A Note on Nuclear Physics in Japan . Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , April : 10 – 10 . 11.
  • Weart , Spencer . 1977 . Secrecy, Simultaneous Discovery and the Theory of Nuclear Reactors . American Journal of Physics , 45 ( 11 ) November : 1049 – 1060 . (p. 1055)
  • Dower , John W. 1978 . Science, Society, and the Japanese Atomic-Bomb Project During World War Two . Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars , 10 ( 2 ) April–June : 41 – 54 . (p. 47).
  • Shapley . 1978 . Nuclear Weapons History: Japan's Wartime Bomb Projects Revealed . Science , 199 January : 153 – 153 . 13 Dower (footnote 22), p. 47.
  • For example, see Miyata Shimpei Kagaku-sha-tachi no Jiyū-na Rakuen: Kōei no Rikagaku Kenkyū-jo (The Scientists' Paradise of Freedom: The Glorious Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) Tokyo 1983 242 242 243; Nobuo Yamahita, ‘Ma-ni-awanakatta Nihon no Genbaku’ (‘Japan's Uncompleted Atomic Bomb’), Kaizō, special number (15 November 1952), 162–65 (p. 164).
  • Dower . 1978 . Science, Society, and the Japanese Atomic-Bomb Project During World War Two . Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars , 10 ( 2 ) April–June : 47 – 47 . Shapley (footnote 19), p. 154.
  • A detailed account can be found in Shōwa-shi no Tennō: iv (The Emperor and Showa History: Volume iv) Shimbun-sha Yomiuri Tokyo 1968 78 229
  • 1970 . “ Nihon Kagaku-Gijutsu-shi Taikei: xiii (An Outline of the History of Science and Technology in Japan: Volume xiii) ” . In History of Science Society of Japan 441 – 441 . Tokyo
  • Dower . 1978 . Science, Society, and the Japanese Atomic-Bomb Project During World War Two . Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars , 10 ( 2 ) April–June : 49 – 50 . Shapley (footnote 19), p. 154.
  • Dower . 1978 . Science, Society, and the Japanese Atomic-Bomb Project During World War Two . Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars , 10 ( 2 ) April–June : 51 – 51 .
  • For example, see Hirosige Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History Tokyo 1973 218 218
  • Yagi , Eri and de Solla Price , Derek J. November 1962 . “ Japanese Bomb ” . In Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Vol. 18 , November , 29 – 29 . 9
  • Sakata , Shōichi . 1977 . Shōichi Sakata: Scientific Works ix – ix . Nagoya
  • Tuge , Hideomi , ed. 1968 . Historical Development of Science and Technology in Japan 146 – 146 . Tokyo 150.
  • Brown , Laurie M. , Konuma , Michiji and Maki , Ziro , eds. 1979 . Particle Physics in Japan: Vol. I 56 – 56 . Kyoto
  • For example, see Miyata Kagaku-sha-tachi no Jiyū-na Rakuen: Kōei no Rikagaku Kenkyū-jo (The Scientists' Paradise of Freedom: The Glorious Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) Tokyo 1983 245 245
  • For example, see Yamamoto Yōichi Nihon Genbaku no Shinso Dai-Hōrin August 1953 20 8 6 40 (‘The Truth about Japan's Atomic Bomb’), (p. 34); History of Science Society of Japan (footnote 27), p. 443.
  • For an account of measures taken by Japan to overcome this problem, see Hirosige Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History Tokyo 1973 204 205
  • For example, see Yamashita Ma-ni-awanakatta Nohon no Genbaku Kaizō 1952 November 164 164 (‘Japan's Uncompleted Atomic Bomb’) special number 15 Mituo Taketani, Taketani Mituo Chosaku-shū: ii, Genshi-ryoku to Kagaku-sha (Collected Works of Mituo Taketani: Volume II, Scientists and Atomic Energy) (Tokyo, 1968), p. 335.
  • For example, see Nihon no Butsuri-gaku Shizen January 1963 18 (‘Japanese Physics’), cited in History of Science Society (footnote 27), p. 418.
  • Reference is made to this survey in Hirosige Kagaku to Rekishi (Science and History Tokyo 1965 180 180 Yamamoto writes that the most frequent reply to the question asking the period of greatest intellectual freedom during the past decades, was the Pacific War period. See Yamamoto (footnote 36), p. 19.
  • Wilcox . 1985 . Japan's Secret War 25 – 26 . New York
  • Wilcox . 1985 . Japan's Secret War 24 – 24 . New York
  • Wilcox . 1985 . Japan's Secret War 212 – 213 . New York
  • Wilcox . 1985 . Japan's Secret War 45 – 45 . New York
  • Wilcox . 1985 . Japan's Secret War 190 – 190 . New York
  • Tomonaga , Sin-itirō . 1985 . Tomonaga Sin-itirō Chosaku-shū, Bekkan ii: Nikki, Shokan (Collected works of Sin-itirō Tomonaga, Supplementary Volume ii: Diary and Letters) 145 – 145 . Tokyo 155.
  • Committee for Yukawa Hall Archival Library Y.H.A.L. Resources: Hideki Yukawa: (iii) Kyoto 1985 1 2 EDT 050,
  • Tanikawa , Yasutaka . 1979 . “ Introduction and Biographical Sketch ” . In Hideki Yukawa: Scientific Works Edited by: Yukawa , Hideki . vii – xx . Tokyo (p. xvii).
  • Sakata . 1977 . Shōichi Sakata: Scientific Works viii – ix . Nagoya
  • Foundation , Nobel . 1972 . Nobel Lectures: Physics, 1963–1979 137 – 137 . New York
  • Hayakawa , Satio . “ Development of Meson Physics in Japan ” . In Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, May 1980 35 – 36 . Symposium paper
  • Tuge . 1968 . Historical Development of Science and Technology in Japan Edited by: Tuge , Hideomi . 165 – 165 . Tokyo
  • Taketani , Mituo . 1980 . Theoretical Study of Cosmic Rays in Japan . paper prepared for International Symposium on the History of Particle Physics . May 28–31 1980 . pp. 15 – 15 . at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Illinois
  • et al. Particle Physics in Japan: Vol. i Brown Lauric M. Konuma Michiji Maki Ziro Kyoto 1979 56 56
  • Kaneseki , Yoshinori . 1950 . “ Elementary Particle Theory Group ” . In Science and Society in Modern Japan Edited by: Nakayama , Shigeru , Swain , David L. and Yagi , Eri . 242 – 242 . Tokyo translated in 1974 For a discussion of the impact of social and political factors on the development of meson theory, see Morris F. Low, ‘Accounting for Science: The Impact of Social and Political Factors on Japanese Elementary Particle Physics’, Historia Scientiarum, no. 36 (1989), 43–65.
  • Kaneseki . 1950 . “ Elementary Particle Theory Group ” . In Science and Society in Modern Japan Edited by: Nakayama , Shigeru , Swain , David L. and Yagi , Eri . 242 – 242 . Tokyo
  • Miyazima , T. , ed. 1971 . Scientific Papers of Tomonaga, Vol. i ii – ii . Tokyo
  • Greene , J.E. , ed. 1966 . McGraw-Hill Modern Men of Science 483 – 483 . New York
  • et al. Particle Physics in Japan: Vol. i Brown Laurie M. Konuma Michiji Maki Ziro Kyoto 1979 56 56
  • Kaneseki . 1950 . “ Elementary Particle Theory Group ” . In Science and Society in Modern Japan Edited by: Nakayama , Shigeru , Swain , David L. and Yagi , Eri . 242 – 242 . Tokyo
  • 1979 . Tomonaga Sin-itirō Hakushi: Hito to Gyōseki . Physics Monthly , 1 ( 4 ) October : 388 – 388 . (‘Dr. Sin-itirō Tomonaga: The Man and His Achievements’)
  • Schwinger , Julian S. 1980 . Tomonaga Sin-itirō: A Memorial, Two Shakers of Physics 14 – 14 . Tokyo
  • Foundation , Nobel . 1972 . Nobel Lectures: Physics, 1963–1979 137 – 137 . New York
  • 1984 . “ Special Committee for Historical Materials, Physical Society of Japan ” . In Nihon no Butsuri-gaku Kenkyū no Dōkō to Butsuri-gaku Kaishi, 1878–1945 (Trends in Japanese Research in Physics and Journals for Physics, 1878–1945) 43 – 44 . Tokyo special report
  • Wilcox , ed. Derek de Solla Price, ‘Preface’
  • Wilcox . 1985 . Japan's Secret War 7 – 9 . New York
  • Dower . 1978 . Science, Society, and the Japanese Atomic-Bomb Project During World War Two . Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars , 10 ( 2 ) April–June : 41 – 41 .
  • Tsurumi , Shunsuke . 1986 . An Intellectual History of Wartime Japan, 1931–1945 100 – 101 . London

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