World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseYoshio Nishina was born in Satosho, Okayama, Japan. He graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University in 1918. In 1921, he was sent to Europe for research; during his time in Europe, he visited the Cavendish Laboratory, Georg August University of Göttingen, and University of Copenhagen. At Copenhagen, he did research with Niels Bohr, who had won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 for his atomic research, and became good friends. In 1928, Nishina and Oskar Klein wrote a paper on incoherent or Compton scattering, from which the Klein-Nishina formula came about. He returned to Japan in late 1928 and attempted to generate interest in quantum physics in Japan. To that end he established a nuclear research laboratory in Tokyo in 1931 as a part of the Institute for Physical and Chemical Research, also known as the Riken Institute. During the 1930s, he focused his research on cosmic rays and the development of particle accelerators, completing his first cyclotron in 1936 and then a larger one in 1937.

ww2dbaseIn 1939, as Japan had already been involved in war for several years, Nishina recognized the military potential of nuclear fission, as many physicists were beginning to at that time. In the early summer of 1940, he met with Lieutenant General Takeo Yasuda, director of the Technical Research Institute of the Japanese Army Aeronautical Department, on a train, and discussed with him the possibility of nuclear weapons. In Apr 1941, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo ordered Yasuda to explore that possibility, who in turn passed the order down to director of Riken Okochi Masatoshi, knowing that it would fall on the desk of Nishina, who by that time had over 100 physicists working for at his laboratory. With this order from Tojo, Nishina became the chairman of the Committee on Research in the Application of Nuclear Physics, which was to include the Japanese Navy's fledging nuclear weapons research program as well. Although his researchers made advances, he thought that to actually produce a practical weapon within a few years was unlikely, "even for the United States". This comment discouraged the Japanese Navy, which redirected its scientific efforts toward radar instead, but the Army continued on with Nishina's team. In Jul 1943, his Army liaison, Major General Nobuji, met with him and promised funding for him to complete a large 60-inch cyclotron. Although this larger cyclotron was completed, the vacuum tubes used were of inferior quality due to the war situation, and as a result by summer of 1944 Nishina's team was only able to produce 170 grams of uranium hexafuoride; by this time, his counterparts in the United States had already produced it by the ton. The research was ultimately fruitless.

ww2dbaseAfter the war on 16 Oct 1945, Nishina sought permission from the American occupation administration to use his two cyclotrons for biological and medical research. The request was initially granted, but on 10 Nov the United States Secretary of War Robert Patterson ordered all cyclotrons in Japan destroyed, which was done on 24 Nov. He wrote a letter of protest, noting his cyclotrons had nothing to do with weapons research despite them being a part of the Japanese Army's research program, Ni-Go, during the war; he argued that the involvement was simply for the funding so that he could continue his non-military research projects. On 3 Nov 1946, he was awarded the Order of Culture by Emperor Showa.

Photographs

Yoshio Nishina Timeline

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