The Strange Career of Dr. Fish : Yoshio Hiyama, Radioactive Fallout, and Nuclear Fear Management in Japan, 1954-1958(<Special Issue>Nuclear Peril in International Contexts)

• HIGUCHI Toshihiro

  Kyoto University, Hakubi Center for Advanced Research

抄録

This paper takes Yoshio Hiyama as an example to explain how Japanese biologists confronted radioactive contamination revealed during the Fukuryu Maru incident in 1954. It argues that Hiyama sought to reconcile a twofold dualism through research and advice. The first part of dualism was scientific, as radioactive fallout had a potential not only as a harmful pollutant but also as a useful tracer. The other part was political due to Japan's conflicting status as a partner of the United States while being a victim of its nuclear weapons. Hiyama sought to manage this matrix of science and politics, defusing the tuna scare that rocked U.S.-Japan relations while making the case for a nuclear test ban which the Japanese government embraced as a politically less destabilizing goal. By bringing antinuclear sentiments to a soft landing, Hiyama midwifed the birth of Japan as an anti-nuclear weapons nation with all its contradictions.

収録刊行物

• Historia scientiarum. Second series

  Historia scientiarum. Second series 25 (1), 57-77, 2015-08-15

  日本科学史学会

キーワード

• Ionizing radiation
• nuclear weapons testing
• marine biology
• permissible dose
• U.S.-Japan relations

詳細情報

• CRID: 1572824502732452608
• NII論文ID: 110009985111
• NII書誌ID: AA11081495
• ISSN: 02854821
• 本文言語コード: en
• データソース種別:
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