Pioneers of Japanese Participation in IUPAC

Sakurai and the Early Years of the IUPAC

Joji Sakurai started studying chemistry at one of the antecedent institutions of Tokyo Imperial University in the early 1870s. But Sakurai moved to Britain in 1876 and finished his study at University College London with renowned organic chemist Alexander W. Williamson (1824-1904) in 1881. Sakurai was immediately appointed lecturer in chemistry at his alma mater and promoted to professor a year later. Sakurai was one of the first native Japanese chemistry professors in Japan.

Joji Sakurai (b. 1858) in his advanced age. Courtesy of the Ishikawa Prefecture Museum of History, Kanazawa, Japan.

Sakurai inherited Williamson’s penchant for a theoretical approach to chemistry, including research interests in reaction mechanism and three-dimensional thinking, and became the main advocate of physical chemistry in Japan in the 1880s, though he had been originally trained as organic chemist. Equally important was what Sakurai called “cultural training” during his study in London, which made him a confirmed anglophile. He polished his English, gained fluency in German and French, and eagerly assimilated British and European culture through his personal acquaintances beyond scientific circles. These were all essential skills to survive in the international chemical community, but very few Japanese scientists actually had them in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century [2]. That is why Sakurai could make his mark as a representative Japanese “scientific diplomat” later in his career from the 1900s as the Japanese delegate of the International Commission on Atomic Weights, International Convention of the International Scientific Catalogue, and then of the International Association of Chemical Societies [3].

IUPAC was created in 1919 to reconstruct the international chemical community torn apart by the outbreak of the First World War. The starting point of the postwar reconstruction of international science was the establishment of the International Research Council (IRC) in the same year by scientists from allied countries [4]. Japan embraced the IRC as part of the war-winning entente, with Sakurai as its champion in spite of strong oppositions from his Japanese peers with German connections. Largely through his strenuous effort, Japan was admitted to IUPAC in 1921 through the Division of Chemistry at the National Research Council of Japan, created in 1920 to be a national member of the IRC. Sakurai became Vice-President of IUPAC twice, from 1923-1924 and 1928-1930 [5]. Simultaneously he cultivated connections with scientists in Pacific Rim countries such as Australia, the United States, and New Zealand through his Anglo-American connections, and successfully organized the Third Pan-Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo in 1926 [6]. He was active in international science until the very end of his life, as is shown by his vice-presidency of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), the successor institution of the IRC, for 1937-1940.

In summary, Sakurai was well-suited for the role of navigating the Japanese scientific community into a post-First World War international science dominated by allied scientists. Sakurai’s efforts towards international cooperation in science and chemistry described above was also aided from the 1900s by his former student and successor at Tokyo, organic chemist Koichi Matsubara (1872-1955) [7]. He studied overseas with William H. Perkin Jr. (1860-1929), at Owens College Manchester and also with Emil Fischer (1852-1919) at the University of Berlin. Like Sakurai two years later, Matsubara represented the Japanese government at the Second International Convention of the International Scientific Catalogue held in London in 1905. For IUPAC, he attended the 1925 Conference in Bucharest, Rumania, as the Japanese representative to the International Committee of Documentation for 1925-8 and also was present at the 1926 Conference in Washington, DC [8]. His election as a vice-president of IUPAC for 1934-1938 would be best interpreted as the recognition of his work as the supporter and successor of Sakurai and as the reflection of the situation of the IUPAC in the 1930s in which Germany was granted its full membership.

Joji Sakurai (JS) attended the 9th IUPAC Conference in The Hague in 1928, with at least two other Japanese colleagues, Yukichi Osaka (YO), professor emeritus of Kyoto Imperial University and Keita Shibata (KS), professor of Tokyo Imperial University. In this close-up of the group, Sakurai (JS) stands three raws behind Moureu (CM), IUPAC first President; nearby on the back are Osaka (YO) and Shibata (KS), and toward the front is Fritz Haber (FH). Also on the front raw, is Ernst Cohen (EC), IUPAC President, and Jean Gerard (JG), Secretary General. See Jorrit P. Smit, this issue page 10 for full picture. Image from photoalbum of professor dr. E.J. Cohen, 1928-1933, Universiteitsmuseum Utrecht, inv.nr 0285-25630.

Mizushima with Debye around 1930. Courtesy of the Mizushima family.

Mizushima and Japan’s readmission to the IUPAC

In 1951 Japan was readmitted unanimously to IUPAC after six years of suspension of its membership following the end of the Second World War. Japan regained independence as a country in the same year, so it was a surprisingly smooth process in comparison with what happened after the First World War. San-ichiro Mizushima, who studied first at Tokyo with Katayama, the student of Sakurai, and then with Dutch-born physicist Peter Debye (1884-1966) at the University of Leipzig in the 1930s, was the main participant to the 1951 General Assembly of IUPAC held in New York City and became a bureau member four years after that in 1955. The reason for his quick promotion in IUPAC partly lies in Mizushima’s effort to cultivate international connections since the 1930s and growing reputation, especially in the United States, based on his path-breaking research in conformational analysis. He coined the "gauche" form around 1940 for a conformation where two vicinal groups are separated by a 60-degree torsion angle. Linus Pauling (1901-1994) was one of the first American scientists who corresponded with Mizushima in the 1930s. Debye immigrated to the United States in 1940, took up a professorship at Cornell University and became a strong supporter of Mizushima’s international career. The invitation from American physical chemist George Glockler (1890-1969) to Mizushima for an American Chemical Society symposium enabled his trip to New York City in 1951. Mizushima’s international career therefore reflects the importance of American-Japanese relations in science and indeed in chemistry specifically after the Second World War. The first Japanese president of the IUPAC, Saburo Nagakura, who studied with both Mizushima and American chemist Robert S. Mulliken (1896-1986), underscores this trend.

Conclusions

Japan’s early role in IUPAC was the outcome of a variety of scientific, cultural and political factors. The quick learning of Western science, culture, and languages and the gradual recognition of research done by Japanese chemists are certainly important, but also were politico-historical factors such as the two world wars, growing presence of the United States (in addition to Europe) on a global scale, and regional alliance in Asia and the Pacific Rim. Japanese chemists’ positions in IUPAC and other international scientific organizations in turn helped them cultivate connections with first-class scientists around the world. This obviously facilitated the flow of scholarly information across national borders and the successful organizing of international conferences: the essential factors in the development of chemistry in twentieth-century Japan [9]. We have no reason to doubt the importance of IUPAC in East Asia in later periods and that the above scientific, cultural, and political issues would play a substantial role in this region’s continuing rise in IUPAC to this present day.

Linus Pauling, Ava Helen Pauling, and Mizushima standing in front of the Great Buddha in Kamakura, Japan, 1955.  Courtesy of the Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Ore., USA.

Sir Walter E. Davidson (Governor of New South Wales: front row, sitting, at the center) and Joji Sakurai (front row, third from the left) during the Second Pan-Pacific Science Congress held in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, 1923. Courtesy of the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of History.