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Postwar Nuclear Policy between Japan and the United States

Research Project

Project/Area Number 12680002
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field 科学技術史(含科学社会学・科学技術基礎論)
Research InstitutionTokyou Institute of Technology

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)

Project Period (FY) 2000 – 2002
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2002)
Budget Amount *help
¥3,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥2,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000)
Keywordsnuclear tests / Bikini incident / Cold War / Hidetoshi Shibata / the Yomiuri Shimbun / 日米関係 / 原子力 / 原子力政策 / アメリカ合衆国 / 日本
Research Abstract

In March 1st 1954 a Japanese fishing vessel, Daigo Fukuryu Maru, suffered from radiation exposure from an American nuclear test in Bikini in the South Pacific. After this incident there appeared both in the US and in Japan a nuclear policy debatSe that the nuclear energy for peaceful purpose in general, and nuclear reactors in particular should be introduced into Japan in order to counter the communitsts' propaganda against American nuclear tests and anti-American movements in Japan. The Operation Coordinate Board of the US National Security Council adopted that policy very soon after the Bikini Incident, and started planning a wide range of strategic programs for Japan. Hidetoshi Shibata, then an executive of the Nippon Television Network Corporation, started his press campaign in January 1955 in the Yomiuri Shimbun with Matsutaro Shoriki, the owner of the Yomiuri Shimbun and later the first president of the Japanese Atomic Energy Commision, for promoting nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Shibata and Shoriki apparently were working together to fight against anti-nuke movements and anti-American activities in Japan. They invited in May John J. Hopkins, President of General Dynamics Corporation, Nobel laureate Ernest Lawrence from the University of California at Berkley, and Lawrence Haftad, director of the division of reactor development of the American Atomic Energy Commision. Their talks in Tokyo were reported to have impressed many Japanese. This paper shows that Yomiuri Shimbun group's activities were in fact supported by the US government, and were done within the framework of the US foreign policy.

Report

(4 results)
  • 2002 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report Summary
  • 2001 Annual Research Report
  • 2000 Annual Research Report

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Published: 2000-04-01   Modified: 2016-04-21  

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