ABSTRACT
Yoshio Nishina was born on December 6, 1890 in Hamanaka, a hamlet of the village of Shinjo, today known as Satosho Village, of Okayama Prefecture.1 The Okayama Prefecture is located between Kobe and Hiroshima along the Setonaikai sea in the western region of Japan’s main island. His family had gained local distinction in the 1830s, when Yoshio’s grandfather, Arimoto, used his civil engineering skills to settle a dispute between Shinjo and a neighboring village over possession of some salt-making fields. In recognition of this service, the local daimyo (feudal lord) bestowed samurai status on Arimoto and one of his sons, Arihito. Yoshio’s father, Arimasa, was the fourth son of Arimoto and inherited some of the family’s farming and salt-making fields. He married Tsune, a daughter of the headman of a distant town, Takafuta, in Hiroshima Prefecture. The couple had five sons and four daughters (Yoshio being the eighth). Arimasa died when Yoshio was 16 years old. Yoshio’s eldest brother, Teisaku, 20 years older than Yoshio, inherited the house, salt-making and farming business, and responsibilities as head of the family, including the role of father to his siblings. Yoshio’s second eldest brother, Empei, was an inventor. Yasuo, the third son in line, was an electrical engineer. Masamichi, 3 years younger than Yoshio, died young in 1919. Three of Yoshio’s four sisters married their cousins. The youngest, Toku, who was very close to Yoshio, married into a successful industrial family, the Uchida family of the nearby city of Kurashiki. The Uchida family later would financially support Nishina’s stay in Europe.
