2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Comparative History of Early Nuclear Projects in Japan, Germany, and Russia
| Project/Area Number |
15300291
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Sociology/History of science and technology
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
YAMAZAKI Masakatsu Tokyo Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology, Professor, 大学院社会理工学研究科, 教授 (20106959)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KAJI Masanori Tokyo Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology, Associate Professor, 大学院社会理工学研究科, 助教授 (00211839)
ICHIKAWA Hiroshi University of Hiroshima, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Professor, 総合科学部, 教授 (00212994)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2005
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| Keywords | nuclear power development / nuclear weapons development / Japan, Germany, and the Soviet Union / the Second World War / the Cold War / social responsibility of scientists |
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| Research Abstract |
The aim of this research program is to study the history of early nuclear projects in Japan, Germany, and Russia in the 1940s with a common standpoint and methodology from the view of science and technology. In August, 2003, on the occasion of the first workshop in Tokyo eleven questions for comparison were suggested by Mark Walker of Union College in the US. (See the preface of the first reference below.) Some results of this program were published in a special issue of Historia Scientiarum in 2005.
New findings and achievements of this program are as follows:
(1) It was known that the Physics Committee of the former Japanese Navy's Technical Research Institute discussed the feasibility of nuclear weapons with Yoshio Nishina in the chair, and broke up after several meetings with a negative conclusion. We found the minutes of the Navy's Council of Science and Technology that suggested Hantaro Nagaoka's strong objection influenced committee's negative conclusion.
(2) Rainer Karlsch's Hitlers Bombe was published in Germany in March, 2005. He found new documents at Russian and German archives, and showed for the first time that Germans did the critical experiments of nuclear fission weapons in March, 1945. After the publication of a joint paper by Karlsch and Walker, Japanese colleagues started their discussion of the matter, but came to the conclusion that Karlsch's argument that Germans used a fusion mechanism needs careful examinations.
(3) Vladimir Vizgin suggested Nuclear Cult and Nuclear Community as key words of Russian nuclear history as well as his former key word Nuclear Shield.
(4) These three counties in the wartime are often seen as "totalitarian systems" but it was suggested that especially in the case of science history the history of each country should be considered form the viewpoint not only of discontinuity but also of continuity.
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