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

www.asiachem.news December 2021 | 97 Still, during my entire undergraduate years at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, I was not particularly attracted to chemistry, and I considered working at a chemical company, satisfying my intellectual curiosity by taking railway history as a serious hobby. And that idea was stimulated by my visit to Israel. When I was a first-year M.Sc. student, I was still interested in chemistry and railway history to the same extent. I have realized that the two fields were not orthogonal to one another. For example, fieldwork with railways looked like scientific experiments. So, it was not difficult to switch from railways to chemistry. After the big explosion and severe injury, I thought it would be stupid to give up my chemistry career after suffering so much. So, I decided to study chemistry even more. During the three months in hospital and three months at home, I started reading chemistry books thoroughly, such as Cram’s organic chemistry textbook. EK: I try to understand your early decision as a young person to focus on the history of the railway system, which is not motivated by practical considerations. I remember that you told me about your trip to Israel, working as a technician at the Tnuva company in Tel Aviv. I guess that employment at a food company was not the actual reason for that visit. Was your interest in the British railways the main reason for coming to Israel? EN: Not even that. I was interested in Roman and Greek architecture and art in my teens, and Israel has much of that. For example, there are old churches like the one in Bethlehem built around 300AD, and I wanted to look at these, although I am not Christian. Mr. Shiroki, an art teacher in my junior high school and high school triggered that interest. He fascinated me with stories about Chinese, Roman, Greek, European, Japanese arts, and architecture. I became particularly interested in Greek and Roman architecture and sculpture, which led me to Israel. I stayed in a small apartment next to the old bus station in South Tel Aviv, a walking distance from the ancient city of Jaffa. One day, close to my apartment, I found an old railway station on the Jaffa-Damascus line. I was astonished to discover that the distance between the rails was 1050millimeters, whereas the Japanese railway’s gauge is 1067 millimeters (3 ft 6 in). Soon, I realized that the 1050 gauge is peculiar to the Hejaz Railway systems. I traveled to Israel railway headquarters in Haifa, asking them to show me historical records. I kept in touch with them after the visit, and they sent me copies of plans of steam engines and passenger cars. I published the first research paper in my life, “Israel Railways, History and Status Quo” in July 1972. EK: I see that your primary areas of interest as a young person were railway, ancient architecture, and probably Greek philosophy. But you became a chemist by pure chance. It reminds me of the Robert Frost famous poem “the road not taken.” how come you finally became a chemist? EN: Not by pure chance. There was a background for choosing chemistry, though. My father was a mining engineer, and he was involved with gold mining. There are not many gold mines to find pure, crystalline gold. The Nakaze mine, which is no longer active, about 50 kilometers away fromOsaka, was fascinating. I remember the location in the mountains, where everything was covered by deep snow. My father specialized in mineralogy and kept beautiful crystals in many boxes at our home, repeatedly showing them to me. I remember the nice-looking blue crystals of copper sulfate. So, it became natural that I would be interested in chemistry. In those days, the regulations on chemicals were less stringent, and I could buy manganese oxide and hydrogen peroxide and generate oxygen by mixing them. When I did those experiments, I was 10-year-old. I still remember producing hydrogen gas by mixing zinc with acids, and I became very excited when the hydrogen flask exploded in front of me, fortunately with no injury. EK: Well, I remember conducting even more ambitious experiments when I was 14-year-old, preparing gun powder, various improvised explosives, Molotov cocktails, and even primitive rockets. Luckily, I didn’t kill myself when initiating these devices in our backyard. Fortunately, current regulations on chemicals forbid this kind of amateur laboratory practice. EN: Well, my primary school teacher even helped me buy chemicals at a local pharmacy. I joined the Komaba Junior and Senior High School attached to Tsukuba University. Komaba, blessed with outstanding teachers, is still considered the top school in Japan. I had an excellent chemistry teacher, Mr. Fukuoka, who formed a chemistry club and taught us chemistry and many other things. We used to go together to the mountains, 3000 meters high in the Japanese Alps. He told us about the clouds and the water cycle, the Alpine flowers, and many other things not included in formal textbooks, including practical skills. For example, since preserved food was not too common those days, he told us to bring thinly sliced pork meat placed between layers of miso, which is fermented soybeans, used as a preservative. Those days, there was no instant dry food, and canned food was too heavy to carry. He also taught us 決 め る の は 、 自 分 だ 。 h t t p s : / / b u n s h i - n o - n e i r o . c o m 意味以前の存在、バッハの音楽のように言葉では置き換えられないリアリティ、 お二人の生き方にもこの映画そのものにも、たたずまいとしか呼べない在り方を感じます。 製作・配給:株式会社モンタージュ 〒156 - 0057 東京都世田谷区上北沢4 - 10 - 18 Tel/03 - 3303 - 9871 Fax/03 - 3303 - 9824 Mail/[email protected] http//www.montage.co.jp ナレーター/シシド・カフカ 出演/中村栄一 渡邊順生 中村洋子 渡邊慶子 水谷定徳 西田理恵 西田賢司 有村美智子 ©2021 MONTAGE Inc. ©MONTAGE INC. 2021

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