Volume 1 of the four-volume A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan examines the occupation years from 1945 to 1952, when Japan's scientific and technological institutions underwent profound transformation under Allied rule. It explores how demilitarization, democratization, and sweeping institutional reforms reshaped the nation's scientific community, research system, higher education, and industrial infrastructure, laying the foundations for postwar reconstruction.

The volume covers topics including the dismantling of wartime science and military research, investigations into the atomic bombings, the reorganization of universities and research institutions, the establishment of new scientific organizations, reforms in public health, telecommunications, and the patent system, and the emergence of democratic movements among scientists and engineers. Written by more than fifty leading Japanese historians of science and technology, this English edition makes a landmark work of Japanese scholarship available to an international audience for the first time. It is an essential resource for researchers and students of the history of science, Science and Technology Studies (STS), Japanese Studies, occupation studies, and postwar East Asian history.

Awards

Mainichi Publications Award (1997)

About Editors and Authors

NAKAYAMA Shigeru was a leading Japanese scholar specializing in the history of science. He was Professor Emeritus at Kanagawa University and Vice-Chairman of the International Academy of the History of Science. In 1945, he joined the Hiroshima High School Science Class (now Hiroshima University), and was exposed to the atomic bomb at his residence. In 1948, he moved to Tokyo to join the Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, and upon graduating in 1951 was employed by the publisher Heibonsha. In 1955, he joined the Graduate School of Harvard University as a Fulbright Scholar and was awarded a PhD in 1960. After returning to Japan, he served in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of the University of Tokyo as Lecturer, and later went on to become Assistant Professor. He retired from the University of Tokyo in 1989 and became Professor at Kanagawa University. His career produced a wide range of research achievements, including in the history of science and technology in China and Japan, the history of universities and the social history of science. He passed away in 2014.

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