Nobuo Yamada(1896-1927) - Marie Curie's First Japanese Disciple

Keiko Kawashima
kawashima.keiko@nitech.ac.jp, Nagoya Institute of Technology
HP design: Emi Higashiura ©2015

<- Back

Who Was Nobuo Yamada?

Nobuo Yamada (1867-1934), Marie Curie (1867-1934)

Nobuo Yamada was Marie Curie’s first Japanese disciple. Yamada was dispatched to the Radium Institute in Paris, where Marie Curie (1867-1934) was the director, by the Japanese government in 1923. Yamada was considered a brilliant scientist in Japan at the time. Yet Yamada’s work in Paris resulted in radiation injury, to which he succumbed at the age of 31. Therefore, he passed away before he could reach the prime of his life as a scientist, and that is why he is not known even in Japan.[1]

A Child Prodigy of the Meiji Era - Modern Japanese Dream of Success

Nobuo Yamada came from a wealthy family from Gifu prefecture. He was born in 1896 in Kobe, where his father worked as a government official. Later, his father was transferred to Taiwan, which was then a Japanese colony; thus, Nobuo remained in Taiwan from elementary school until junior high school, where he studied under the old education system. Young Nobuo, like Maria Sk?odowska (later known as Marie Curie), was always at the top of his class and was called a child prodigy. Due to his reputation, Takeo Sawa, a successful business person, the founder of the sugar-refining industry in Taiwan, proposed paying Nobuo’s school expenses. With this support, Nobuo was able to obtain higher education in mainland Japan, where he first entered Tokyo Higher Technical School (present-day Tokyo Institute of Technology) and then enrolled in the Department of Chemistry at the Faculty of Science of Tohoku Imperial University.

He continued to maintain an outstanding record at Tohoku Imperial University and became a lecturer at the institution after his graduation. Subsequently, he relocated to Tokyo upon receiving an offer from his instructor, Professor Katayama, to take up an associate professorship at the Aeronautical Research Institute of Tokyo Imperial University, established in 1918, the first full-fledged science institute in Japan.

Nobuo Yamada in the Radium Institute (about 1924)

Now, I shall briefly discuss Yamada’s personal life. He got married in Tohoku to the daughter of Sawa’s elder sister. The fact offers proof that not only Sawa but also his relatives recognised Yamada’s talent. These actions of Sawa and others reflect the state of Japan at that time, having opened up its country to the world in 1868 and announcing the end of the Samurai era. Thus, Japan was modernising and trying to develop itself as a country, following the standard of increasing its wealth and military might to become as powerful as the allied Western powers. Especially in the field of science and technology. Therefore, Yamada’s government-sponsored overseas study was part of the Japanese government’s policy in this regard. The government deemed it the right thing to do, to work hard for the country to become one of the “great powers”, and for a man to “succeed in life” and a woman to “devote” herself to the sort of man who had this aspiration. Thus, everyone around Yamada expected him to succeed as a scientist.

Studies on Radioactivity in Paris

Though we may tend towards believing that Yamada had already begun studying radioactivity in Japan when he went to Paris, in reality, he had not. In fact, Yamada had studied natural helium at the Aeronautical Research Institute.[2] At that time, airships were used for industrial and military purposes, and since hydrogen balloons faced a high risk of explosion, scientists were searching for alternative gases. Thus, non-flammable helium was considered to be a safer fuel. Yamada had been studying helium in the context of military use also, as the Aeronautical Research Institute, while offering researchers a high degree of freedom from fulfilling any teaching obligations, also had a deep relationship with the military.

When Yamada was dispatched to the Radium Institute in Paris by the Japanese government in 1923, he was 27 years old. The reason why the Radium Institute was chosen is unknown. In any case, Marie Curie highly evaluated Yamada’s talent and instructed him to conduct joint studies with her daughter Irène Curie (future Joliot-Curie, 1897-1956). The two young scientists worked together and published two co-written articles. In a letter that Irène sent to her mother, she expressed her appreciation for Yamada’s photographic technique.[3] Further, Yamada published three sole-author articles in France.[4]

As she had once not been an affluent student from Poland, Marie Curie was very kind to foreign students at the Radium Institute. The institute gave people an impression for being foreigner- and woman-friendly. In reality, Marie Curie was simply sincere and impatrial to everybody. However, this quality is precious. I assume, therefore, that Yamada was comfortable there. In a postcard that he sent to his wife from Paris, he wrote a statement to the effect of “time flies so fast every day.” I believe that he had a fruitful and satisfying time researching in Paris.

Furthermore, focusing on the gender aspect of the Radium Institute, Marie Curie was the only woman to head an advanced research institute in the world at that time.[5] This means that Yamada was the first Japanese male scientist to be taught by a woman and to have a woman of his own age as a collaborator (moreover, Yamada was the second author of the aforementioned articles). During Yamada’s tenure at the Radium Institute, he had roughly ten female colleagues. That was about one third of its overall colleagues. Thus, having not only a female mentor but also many female colleagues, Yamada had the rare experience of conducting research in an environment that differed drastically from what he had been accustomed to in Japan?namely, a completely male dominated world. Though unrelated to the Japanese government’s decision to send Yamada to Paris, he was the first Japanese man in the most advanced scientific environment reflecting what is now called a gender equal society[6]

After completing two years of satisfying research, Yamada left France in January 1926. However, he did not return directly to Japan. First, Yamada boarded a ship that crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. At the request of the Aeronautical Research Institute, he stayed there for a while to study helium. Then he travelled by train via the American Transcontinental Railroad and, from the West Coast, crossed the Pacific Ocean to Japan in February of the same year. On this return voyage, Yamada was already feeling ill. Yamada had dealt with polonium without wearing any protective gear but a laboratory coat, and the exposure to heavy radiation had caused him harm.

The Cause of the “Strange Disease”

Yamada fainted soon after arriving in Japan and was transported to the University of Tokyo Hospital. He was discharged from the hospital in July, but could not return to the Institute due to a combination of continuous fatigue and severe gastritis. Since the medical doctors in Japan at that time had never seen a patient suffering from radiation injury, they could not provide an effective treatment. The doctors were puzzled about Yamada’s illness; to everyone around him it was just a “strange disease.” After Yamada’s death, fearing that this disease might be contagious, his bereaved family discarded most of his belongings, including the books and clothes that he had brought back with him from Paris. Besides wanting to protect themselves from the illness, the family members wanted to avoid the spread of rumours. This is one of the reasons why this young scientist has been forgotten in his own country.

What did Yamada think about his illness? He wrote a letter to Irène while battling the illness, in which he expressed his gratitude for the guidance given by both her and her mother. He wrote the following: “Thanks to the works I have published until now, I obtained the title Doctor of Science in Japan. I really thank Madame Curie and you for this. Here in Japan, this title is so difficult to obtain. There are few people our age who have such a title.”[7] He was indebted to both Marie and Irène Curie, but he also suspected that there was a relationship between his studies on radioactivity and his illness. In fact, in the same letter, Yamada also wrote the following:

“The cause of the illness is not yet clear. It is certain that I was very tired at the end of my long stay in a foreign country, but also there was a toxication caused by radioactivity emanation. Here in Japan, we do not have a large quantity of radioactive substances, and in consequence, not a single article about the toxication of such substances exists. I think it would be interesting to compare the course of my illness with those of others who have caught the same kind of illness. It would be very kind of you if you could inform me of the names and volume numbers of journals that describe the symptoms of such toxication.”

Yamada’s conjecture was right. One year after he wrote this letter, on 1 November 1927, Yamada died at the age of 31. The pro forma cause of his death was a brain tumour. He and Sonia Cotelle (1896?1945), who was also a disciple of Marie Curie, are considered to be the first victims of radioactivity from polonium.[8] Shocked by the news of Yamada’s death, Marie and Irène Curie each wrote a gracious condolatory letter to Yamada’s supervisor and his wife. Although there were hearts mourning the death of this excellent Asian scientist, there was no recognition of the danger of radioactivity.[9]

Just before Yamada’s death, when he was already unconscious, Tokyo Imperial University promoted him to the rank of “professor.” However, neither Yamada nor the Japanese government achieved their original purpose of utilising his scientific research carried out in France for the development of Japan. Though Yamada passed away without realising his ambition, he had been expected to achieve success in life from the people around him, and he worked hard for his country. Therefore, it can be said that his life represented the lives of men in modern Japan.

Later Years of His Colleague, Irène Curie

Irène Curie (1897-1956), Frédéric Joliot (1900-1958)

Seven years after Yamada’s death, in 1934, his erstwhile colleague Irène jointly discovered artificial radioactivity with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900-1958).[10] This research won the couple the Noble Prize in chemistry in 1935. They created artificial radioactive nitrogen and phosphorus by irradiating an alpha ray from polonium, the radioactive element that Irène had dealt with in her joint studies with Yamada, to the atomic nuclei of light elements, such as boron and aluminium. Incidentally, since Frédéric Joliot had joined the Radium Institute in 1925 as an assistant of Marie Curie, he might have been acquainted with Yamada. Although there are no records of his impression of Yamada, when Frédéric guided Toshiko Yuasa (1910-1980) in later years, the former praised the Japanese culture and people; I assume accordingly that he had a favourable impression of Yamada.[11]

Irène, too, was ill around the time when she had received Yamada’s letter. In addition to tuberculosis, with which her mother was also infected,[12] unusual symptoms, such as continuous fatigue and dramatic reduction of red blood cells that were unrelated to tuberculosis, arose one after the other. Still, she continued her research, but she was often admitted to sanatoriums.[13] As she lay in her hospital bed, did Irène remember the letter from her Japanese colleague? Probably not. Irène insisted until the end that her illness was not due to her research. Frédéric was of the same opinion, and even though he admitted that Irène had been exposed to radiation when she worked as an X-ray technician during World War I,[14] at no point did he admit to the danger of radioactivity at the Radium Institute, even for himself.

In 1956, at the age of 58, Irène Joliot-Curie died due to acute leukaemia caused by radiation injury, like her mother. Frédéric passed away two years later, also at the age of 58, due to liver disease from radiation injury. Each of them was given a national funeral. In the end, like Pierre and Marie Curie, they became French heroes.

This work was supported by JSPS’s Grants-in-aid for Scientific Research “Early Years of Radioactivity Research and Women―Successors of Marie Curie” ( (C): 15K01914).

I thank Ms Natalie Pigeard-Micault of the Curie Museum for her valuable suggestion about Marie Curie and the Radium Institute. Actually, the Archive of the Radium Institute is in the Curie Museum at Paris. http://musee.curie.fr.

Notes

  1. ^

    Among the biographers of Marie Curie, the first person to mention Yamada was Suzan Quinn of the United States. Jean Pierre Poirier also briefly discussed the life of Yamada at the end of his book about Marie Curie and nuclear power. When Poirier wrote this section of the book, I cooperated with him. I looked for and contacted Yamada’s son and then interviewed him. Mitsuo, Yamada’s eldest son and only child alive at that time, conducted various investigations to follow in his father’s footsteps after his retirement, and he published articles on his father. Drawing on these materials, I wrote one chapter on Nobuo Yamada in my book about Marie Curie. Yamada was also mentioned to some extent in the latest biography of Irène Joliot-Curie. Suzan Quinn, Marie Curie, A Life, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1996, pp. 414-5; Mitsuo Yamada, “Houshyanou Kenkyu ni Juinjita Yamada Nobuo no Syougai (Nobuo Yamada, a Life Devoted to Radioactivity Research),” Yakushigaku Zassi (Journal of the Historyt of Pharmacy, 1st. Part, Vol. 33-2, 1998 : 136-140, 2nd. Part, Vol. 34-1, 1999 : 29-34; Mitsuo Yamada, “Koukuu Kenkyuujo to Yamada Nobuo (Aeronautical Institute and Nobuo Yamada),” Kagakushi, The Journal of Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry, Vol. 26-3, 1999 : 156-167; . Jean-Pierre Poirier, “Biographie de Nobuo Yamada,” Marie Curie et les Conquerants de l’Atome, Paris, Pygmalion, 2006, pp. 353-6 ; Keiko Kawashima, Marii Kurii no Chosen (Challenge of Marie Curie), Transview, 2010, pp.144-155 : Keiko Kawashima, “Deux savants japonais et la famille Curie, Nobuo Yamada et Toshiko Yuasa,”Actualite chimique, mai 2012, n. 363 : 51-55; Louis-Pascal Jacquemond, Irène Joliot-Curie, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2014, pp. 76, 107, 240.

  2. ^

    Yamada wrote an English article on helium in Japan. Nobuo Yamada, “On the Contents of Helium and other Constituents in Japanese Natural Gas,” Rep. Aeronautical Res. Inst. Tokyo Imp. Univ. , No. 6, 1923 : 171.

  3. ^

    Letter of Irène to Marie Curie, juillet 1924, Marie Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie, Correspondance. Choix des lettres (1905-1934), Paris, Les Editeurs français reunis, 1974, p. 244.

  4. ^

    Irène Curie, Nobuo Yamada, “Sur la distribution de longueur des rayons α du polonium dans l’oxygene et dans l’azote,” Comptes rendus des seances de l’Academie des sciences (CRAS), 179, 1924 : 761-763; NobuoYamada, “Sur les particules de long parcours du polonium,”CRAS, 180, 1925 : 436-439; Irène Curie, Nobuo Yamada,“Sur les particules de long parcours emises par le polonium,” CRAS, 180, 1925 : 1487-1489 : Nobuo Yamada, “Sur les particules de long parcours emises par le depot actif du thorium,”CRAS,180, 1925 : 1591-1594; Nobuo Yamada, “Sur les particules de long parcours emises par le depot actif du radium,”CRAS, 181, 1925 : 176-178. After writing these articles, Yamada and Irène wraped up them and publishes two articles in a joural organisez by the Radium Institute. Irène Curie, Nobuo Yamada,“Etudes des particules α de long parcours emises par divers corps radioactifs,”Journal de Physique et Le Radium, 6, 1925 : 376-380; Nobuo Yamada, “Sur les particules de long parcours du polonium et les le depot actif du thorium et du radium,” Journal de Physique et Le Radium, 6, 1925 : 380-389. For Yamada’s research, see, Masanobu Sakagami, “Yamada Nobuo Hakase no Pari de no Kenkyu to sono Kagakushiteki Imi (Nobuo Yamada’s Research in Paris and its Meaning in the History of Science),”KAGAKUSHI(The Journal of the Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry), Vol.26-3, 1999 : 152-167. The Curie Archive in Paris contains offprints of his articles which are dedicated to Marie Curie by Yamada with great appreciation. I assume that he was very glad to have his sole-authored articles printed in French in the prestigious journals of France. Musée Curie, archives de l’Institut du Radium : Dossier Yamada (documents without number).

  5. ^

    The Radium Institute, from its foundation, was divided into two sections: a basic research department and a medical department devoted to studying radium therapy. The facility established was in 1914, with Marie Curie as the director of the former and Dr Claudius Regaud (1870-1940) of the Pasteur Institute as the director of the latter. Therefore, although it was the same institute, the head of the medical department was a man. For the Radium Institute, see Minelle Verdié, Institut Curie, Paris, le cherche, 2008.

  6. ^

    For Female scientists in the Radium Institute, see Natalie Pigeard-Micault, Les femmes du Laboratoire de Marie Curie,Paris, Edition Glyphe, 2013.

  7. ^

    Musée Curie, archives de l’Institut du Radium : Dossier Yamada, lettre de Yamada à Irène Joliot-Curie du 30 novembre 1926, manuscrit n. 001183-1, 2, 3. In this letter Yamada misunderstood the year. He dated “1925,” but it actually was “1926,” because he studied in Paris in November 1925 and he died in Japan in 1st Nobember 1927.

    After his return to Japan, Yamada prepared a doctoral thesis by combining three articles published in Paris, and he obtained the title Doctor of Science from Tokyo Imperial University in June 1926. For Yamada’s doctotal dissertation, see Sakagami in note 4 “Taisho Jugonen Rokugatsu Kokonoka, Yamada Nobuo, Gakui Sekyu Ronbun Sinsa Houkoku (June 9th 1926, Nobuo Yamada, Assessment Report of Doctoral Dissertation)”, Tohoku Kagaku Dosokaiho (News Letter of Alumni Association, Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University), No.5, 1927, pp 157-158.

  8. ^

    Sonia Cotelle was a Polish chemist, who conducted research at the Radium Institute during the same period as Yamada. Cotelle began experiencing symptom of radiation injury around 1927 and died in 1934. For Cotelle, see Pigeard-Micault, Les femmes du Laboratoire de Marie Curie (note 6), pp. 240-245 and its references.

  9. ^

    Musée Curie, archives de l’Institut du Radium : Dossier Yamada, 001388, 001361.

  10. ^

    Though Fréréric and Irène Joliot-Curie officially chose the composite family name Joliot-Curie upon their marriage, they used the names Curie and Joliot, respectively, for articles, and they were generally referred to as Mr and Mrs Joliot. See for exemple, Fréréric et Irène Joliot-Curie, OEuvres scientifiques completes, Paris, Puf,1961.

  11. ^

    Toshiko Yuasa, Pari Zuiso (Essay on Paris), Tokyo, Misuzu Shobo, 1970, p. 216. Toshiko Yuasa was disciple of Frédéric Joliot-Curie and she became the first worldwide known Japanese female scientist. For Yuasa, see website of Ochanomizu University: http://archives.cf.ocha.ac.jp/en/researcher/yuasa_toshiko.html

  12. ^

    Marie Curie’s mother died of tuberculosis when Marie was 10 years old. It seems probable that Marie was infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis from her mother and, though she did not develop tuberculosis, she spent her life as a carrier. The common view at the moment is that she likely infected her daughter Irène.

  13. ^

    For this question, see “Les risques du métier” in Jacquemond, Irène Joliot-Curie (note 1), pp. .235-252.

  14. ^

    For Marie Curie and Irène’s activities during the WWI, see Anaïs Massiot, Natalie Pigeard-Micault, Marie Curie et la Grande Guerre, Paris, Glyphe, 2014.

<- Back