The question of research in prewar Japanese physics

A primary challenge that James Bartholomew addressed in The Formation of Science in Japan: Building a Research Tradition was the establishment of a tradition of scientific research in Japan, an issue that this chapter revisits by examining some of the problems that confronted noted prewar physicists in their efforts to integrate their research activities within the international scientific community and subsequently to develop their own tradition of physics research. ¹ Here the word research means methodical and institutional activities conducted to produce new knowledge, not learning established knowledge from others. Shaped by various characteristics of the time and debated among its historical actors, what actually constitutes research is contingent and contentious. Nonetheless, physicists’ research efforts can be examined from an historical perspective.