Chapter 3
Astronomy in Early Showa. I. Tokyo
1926–1945
Abstract In early Showa, Japan was under military rule and ultimately rushed
headlong into World War II.
Japanese astronomers in this era were removed from the age of foreign studies.
Research in astronomy and astrophysics was mostly carried out at the Tokyo
Astronomical Observatory (TAO) and three Imperial Universities (Tokyo, Kyoto,
and Tohoku), where some notable results were obtained. The astronomical activities
in these areas will be presented separately in the next three chapters through the
works of some leading astronomers.
This chapter is devoted to the Tokyo area: Tokyo Imperial University and the
TAO. The astrophysical works of Hagihara Yusuke, Hatanaka Takeo, Fujita Yoshio,
Kaburaki Masaki,
Osawa Kiyoteru, and Hirose Hideo are successively discussed (Unno, 2008).
Studies of the history of oriental astronomy in the postwar period are also presented.
3.1 The TAO and the IAU
In international relations, the period from Taisho to early Showa was when Japan
was first welcomed into the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and thereafter
rejected because of Japan’s extreme militarism (Blaauw 1994).
The IAU was established and the first general assembly (GA) was held in Rome
in 1922. From the early phase, Japan was warmly welcomed into the IAU. The
successive GA and Japanese delegates who were selected from the TAO are as given
in Table 3.1 (Fig. 3.1).
No Japanese delegate attended the sixth GA in 1938. Japan had already entered
the Sino-Japanese war, and the Japanese army occupied some Chinese territory.
In 1939, World War II broke out between the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and
Japan) and the Allied Powers (England, France, Netherlands, USA, and others), and
the IAU experienced prolonged interruption in its activities mainly due to the
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
T. Kogure, The History of Modern Astronomy in Japan, Historical & Cultural
Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57061-3_3
45
Astronomy in Early Showa. I. Tokyo
1926–1945
Abstract In early Showa, Japan was under military rule and ultimately rushed
headlong into World War II.
Japanese astronomers in this era were removed from the age of foreign studies.
Research in astronomy and astrophysics was mostly carried out at the Tokyo
Astronomical Observatory (TAO) and three Imperial Universities (Tokyo, Kyoto,
and Tohoku), where some notable results were obtained. The astronomical activities
in these areas will be presented separately in the next three chapters through the
works of some leading astronomers.
This chapter is devoted to the Tokyo area: Tokyo Imperial University and the
TAO. The astrophysical works of Hagihara Yusuke, Hatanaka Takeo, Fujita Yoshio,
Kaburaki Masaki,
Osawa Kiyoteru, and Hirose Hideo are successively discussed (Unno, 2008).
Studies of the history of oriental astronomy in the postwar period are also presented.
3.1 The TAO and the IAU
In international relations, the period from Taisho to early Showa was when Japan
was first welcomed into the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and thereafter
rejected because of Japan’s extreme militarism (Blaauw 1994).
The IAU was established and the first general assembly (GA) was held in Rome
in 1922. From the early phase, Japan was warmly welcomed into the IAU. The
successive GA and Japanese delegates who were selected from the TAO are as given
in Table 3.1 (Fig. 3.1).
No Japanese delegate attended the sixth GA in 1938. Japan had already entered
the Sino-Japanese war, and the Japanese army occupied some Chinese territory.
In 1939, World War II broke out between the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and
Japan) and the Allied Powers (England, France, Netherlands, USA, and others), and
the IAU experienced prolonged interruption in its activities mainly due to the
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
T. Kogure, The History of Modern Astronomy in Japan, Historical & Cultural
Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57061-3_3
45