Japan and the Nobel Science Prizes: The First Half Century, 1901-1949

请求提供支助，以完成一本关于日本科学界和二十世纪上半叶诺贝尔奖的书的研究工作。这本书总共有十章，八个日本诺贝尔奖候选人的七个案例研究章节(两个合并在一个章节中)，以及其他章节讨论该项目的社会、政治和智力背景；日本科学家作为诺贝尔奖提名者的活动；以及从研究中得出的结论。时间参数反映了诺贝尔奖机构关于档案材料使用的50年规则。该项目的构思反映了1868年后日本创造现代科学研究传统的早期历史工作，但也注意到了前几个世纪的发展。它还受到公众和专业人士对1981年以来在日本显而易见的诺贝尔奖的强烈兴趣的启发。尽管物理学家汤川遥菜在1949年成功地获得了诺贝尔奖，但其他几位实力雄厚的日本候选人在那个时期都没有成功。一些文章和短书曾简要讨论过其中一些候选人，但从未使用过任何档案材料。这些评论通常认为，每个日本候选人都被错误地拒绝了奖项，可能是某种形式的种族主义造成的。虽然这项研究并不否认种族主义当时在国际科学界的一些人中存在，也不否认这种信仰有时会产生影响，但它扩大了参照框架，并提出了其他几个因素来解释事态的发展：日本的派系斗争、日本官员的干预、第一次世界大战后从德语和法语转向英语的转变，以及日本人对医学的专注，这是一个特别广泛、竞争激烈的研究领域。

Support is requested to complete the research for a book dealing with the Japanese scientific community and the Nobel Prizes during the first half of the twentieth century. The book will have ten chapters in all, seven case study chapters of eight Japanese Nobel candidacies (two combined in one chapter) and additional chapters discussing the social, political, and intellectual context of the project; Japanese scientists' activities as Nobel nominators; and the conclusions drawn from the study. The time parameters reflect the Nobel institution's 50-year rule regarding use of archival materials. Conception of the project reflects earlier historical work on the creation of a modern tradition of scientific research in Japan after 1868 but with some attention to developments in the preceding centuries. It is also informed by the intense public and professional interest in the Nobel Prizes evident in Japan since 1981. Although the physicist Yukawa Hideki succeeded in winning a Nobel Prize in 1949, several other strong Japanese candidates were unsuccessful in the period. A number of essays and short books have briefly discussed some of these candidacies but never with any use of archival materials. These commentaries often assume that each Japanese candidate was wrongly denied an award, and that some form of racism was likely responsible. While not denying that racism existed at the time among some in the international scientific community and acknowledging that such beliefs could sometimes have influence, this study broadens the frame of reference and advances several other factors to explain developments: Japanese factionalism, meddling by Japanese officials, the shift away from German and French and toward English after World War I, and Japanese concentration in medicine, a particularly broad, highly competitive research arena.