AsiaChem | Chemistry in Japan | December 2021 Volume 2 Issue 1

www.asiachem.news December 2021 | 89 to do this? We were patient, diligent, and hardworking. Also, we enjoyed complete academic freedomwithout any outside pressure or restriction. That freedom was a key factor for promoting academic research. We learned much from America and Europe and later enjoyed partnerships with colleagues from all over the world, including the Asian region. I would also acknowledge industrial collaboration here, for the industry eventually transforms our basic knowledge into social benefits. I was born in 1938 in a suburb of Kobe and grew up into the experience of World War II. At the very end of the war, in April of 1945, I was to enter elementary school. However, before the horrible atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, American B29 bombers devastated Kobe, reducing the central city to ashes. My mother and her three sons (our younger sister was not born later) took refuge earlier in the nearby countryside, while my father remained working in Kobe and commuted at weekends to take care of his family. What was waiting for us there was a life of self-sufficiency. That farming village was a world with no cars, telephones, electricity, no market for daily supplies, no running water, not even cooking gas. We used to pump water from a local well, firewood for heating, and candles for lighting. Our neighbors helped us with basic food, such as rice, vegetables, eggs, and river fish. We learned how to grow our vegetables, breed hens, and collect wild nuts and plants. As a 6-year-old boy, I learned from older friends how to make traps to snare sparrows and catch fish at the pond and river. I even made straw sandals because we had no shoes for school. I constructed a study desk fromwood containers, and crude lumbers using a saw and nails. Even boiling water for the bath was a non-trivial task. These activities provided me with tacit wisdom rather than explicit knowledge taught at school and prepared me for my science career. Though very poor, the farmland, with its peaceful and beautiful natural surroundings, triggered my curiosity in science. In addition, our stay in the countryside made me physically strong. Although my mother gave me many books to read, I preferred outdoor activities and sports. My interest in indoor learning came much later. My personal experience, learning to supply all my needs through exposure to Nature, also worked on the national scale. We learned to secure our lives and livelihood by ourselves. In a more general sense, Humanity can meet significant challenges, such as natural disasters and infectious diseases, through science and technology. When and why did you consider becoming a scientist? When WWII ended, we returned to Kobe, and I, a 7-year-old boy, continued my elementary school. Our country was devastated, we suffered food shortages and a lack of basic supplies, and my childhood remained difficult. My mother wisely managed to feed a family of six under these 1 3 2 1. Ryōji Noyori was a naughty schoolboy. In 1949 at age 11. 2. Ryōji Noyori was a black-belt “judo” expert. At a high school in Kobe, Japan in 1956. 3. Nozaki group of Kyoto University in 1964. From left, students R. Urakabe, M. Yamabe and N. Kozaki, Professor H. Nozaki, and Instructors R. Noyori and K. Kondo.

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