Establishment of high energy physics in Japan and its socio-cultural background, 1955-1971

• Project/Area Number: 17K01174
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Sociology/History of science and technology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University (2022); The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (2017-2021)
• Principal Investigator: Ito Kenji 京都大学, 文学研究科, 准教授 (90345158)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
• Budget Amount: ¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000); Fiscal Year 2021: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2020: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2019: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
• Keywords: 科学史 / 物理学史 / 高エネルギー物理学 / 冷戦 / 日本の物理学史 / 日本の科学史 / 高エネルギー加速器研究所 / 科学と外交 / 冷戦期科学 / 日本科学史 / 高エネルギー物理の歴史 / ビッグサイエンス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aims to contextualize the establishment of high energy physics in Japan within the global politics and the domestic political and cultural environment. During the period of this grant, the project has made a great progress in developing the basic theoretical understanding of historical investigations on science and international relations. As for the domestic cultural and political context, a paper has been accepted and read at the History of Science Society meeting and now a journal article is under preparation.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、日本において重要な分野である高エネルギー物理学の成立を国際的および国内政治文化的な文脈から歴史的に論じるものである。高エネルギー物理学は極めて高価で、大量の物的、人的資源を要する、基礎科学の研究分野であり、実用の可能性が低いにも関わらず、このような資源が投入されていることは説明を要する。これについては、米国においては冷戦期における核戦略の一環として、欧州においては欧州統合の政治的文脈において説明されることが多いが、西側諸国においてこれらと並んで重要な拠点である日本においてなぜ高エネルギー物理学が成立し得たのかについては、これまで説明がなかった。本研究はその説明を与えるものである。

Research Products

• [Int'l Joint Research] National Technical University of Athens(ギリシャ)
• [Int'l Joint Research] Cardiff University(英国)
• [Journal Article] Transnational scientific advising: occupied Japan, the United States National Academy of Sciences and the establishment of the Science Council of Japan (2023)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Journal Title: The British Journal for the History of Science Volume: Online Pages: 1-15
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] The material culture and politics of artifacts in nuclear diplomacy (2021)
  • Author(s): Rentetzi, Maria; Ito, Kenji
  • Journal Title: Centaurus Volume: 63 Issue: 2 Pages: 233-243
  • DOI: 10.1111/1600-0498.12394
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] The scientific object and material diplomacy: The shipment of radioisotopes from the United States to Japan in 1950 (2021)
  • Author(s): Ito Kenji
  • Journal Title: Centaurus Volume: Online Issue: 2 Pages: 1-24
  • DOI: 10.1111/1600-0498.12379
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] The co-production of nuclear science and diplomacy: towards a transnational understanding of nuclear things (2021)
  • Author(s): Ito Kenji、Rentetzi Maria
  • Journal Title: History and Technology Volume: Online Issue: 1 Pages: 1-17
  • DOI: 10.1080/07341512.2021.1905462
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Three tons of uranium from the International Atomic Energy Agency: diplomacy over nuclear fuel for the Japan Research Reactor-3 at the Board of Governors’ meetings, 1958-1959 (2021)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Journal Title: History and Technology Volume: Online Issue: 1 Pages: 1-23
  • DOI: 10.1080/07341512.2021.1897963
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] 竹内時男と人工放射性食塩：1940年代初めの科学スキャンダル (2018)
  • Author(s): 伊藤憲二
  • Journal Title: 科学史研究（第三期） Volume: 57
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] "Electron Theory" and the Emergence of Atomic Physics in Japan (2018)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Journal Title: Science in Context Volume: 31 Issue: 3 Pages: 293-320
  • DOI: 10.1017/s0269889718000261
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Presentation] Emergence of High Energy Physics in Japan and the Cold War Politics in the 1960s (2022)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: History of Science Society Annual Meeting Virtual Festival
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] The International Conference of Theoretical Physics in 1953 and the Rehabilitation of the Japanese Physics Community (2021)
  • Author(s): Ito, Kenji
  • Organizer: IUPAP History Project Preliminary Workshop
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] UNESCO Cooperative Associations and Science Diplomacy in the Occupied Japan (2021)
  • Author(s): Ito, Kenji
  • Organizer: Science Popularization as Cultural Diplomacy: UNESCO (1946-1958)
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] 仁科芳雄と戦時核研究：マンハッタン計画史観を超えて (2021)
  • Author(s): 伊藤憲二
  • Organizer: 科学史学校（日本科学史学会）
  • Invited
• [Presentation] 予期せざる結果としての初期日本学術会議 (2021)
  • Author(s): 伊藤憲二
  • Organizer: 科学社会学会年次大会
  • Invited
• [Presentation] A global history of dread: How historians (try to) frame and explain the hazards in our lives (2019)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito, Yeonsil Kang, Scott Knowlles, Amy Slaton
  • Organizer: A panel discussion at Drexel University
  • Invited
• [Presentation] Developments of Nuclear Physics in Japan: Why in Japan and Why Nuclear Physics? (2019)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: An invited lecture at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
  • Invited
• [Presentation] The History of Science in 20th Century Japan, or How a "Non-Western" Country Adapted So-Called Western Science (2019)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: An invited lecture at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
  • Invited
• [Presentation] Albert Einstein and the Emergence of the "Scientist" in Early 20th-Century Japanese Physics: The Work, Careers, and Professional Identities of Kuwaki Ayao, Ishiwara Jun, and Takeuchi Tokio (2019)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: An invited lecture at the University of Manchester
  • Invited
• [Presentation] A Two-Sided Study of Diplomacy over Nuclear Materials: The Shipment of Radioisotopes from the United States to Japan in 1950 (2019)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: 1st Conference of the International Academy of History of Science
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] When did Japanese physicists become 'scientists'? Their transition from gakusha to kagakusha and Takeuchi Tokio's artificial radium in the early 1940s (2019)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: Joint East Asian Conference, University of Edinburgh
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Physicists versus Locals in Tanashi: The Dispute over the Establishment of the Institute for Nuclear Study (2019)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] 日本における核物理学発展の社会的条件 (2018)
  • Author(s): 伊藤憲二
  • Organizer: 日本科学史学会年会
• [Presentation] Nishina Yoshio and the U. S. Export of Radioisotopes to Occupied Japan (2018)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: 2nd Annual Asian Studies Conference Japan
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Three Tons of Uranium from the IAEA: Diplomacy, Safeguards, and the Japan Research Reactor-3 in the late 1950s (2018)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: Nuclear Diplomacies: Their Past, Present, and Future
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] How does knowledge travel? Theoretical considerations and two case studies in the history physics in Japan (2017)
  • Author(s): Kenji Ito
  • Organizer: International Congress of History of Science and Technology
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Book] The Oxford Handbook of the History of Quantum Interpretations (2022)
  • Author(s): Freire, Olival 編集（Ito, Kenji分担執筆）
  • Total Pages: 1312
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 9780198844495
• [Book] Global Epistemologies and Philosophies of Science (2021)
  • Author(s): Ludwig, David 他編集（Ito, Kenji 分担執筆）
  • Total Pages: 338
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 9780367461379