日本在 1900 年代初期在科學和物理學方面迅速趕上，他們是如何實現這一目標的？
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FrigorificoJapan managed to catch up very quickly in science and physics in the early 1900s, how did they accomplish this?
I'm a physicist, and it's funny that for a good part of the history of physics all the important names are european or from the united states, and then suddenly there's Yukawa, Tomonara, Nishina, and many others.
The japanese came out of nowhere and where on par with everyone else, how did they accomplish this?
 ParallelPainSengoku Japan |
Japan's basis in the European sciences started in the Edo period. The only Europeans that were allowed to go to Japan were the Dutch (a few people who weren't Dutch lied), and they were confined to the trading port of Dejima outside Nagasaki except on the official mission to see the Shōgun in Edo. However, this window to Europe allowed a lot of knowledge of the sciences to flow into Japan. European knowledge was called rangaku or "Dutch studies." The most popular area was medicine (as mentioned in the recent coffee thread this was how coffee was first introduced to Japan) and gunnery, which attracted students from across Japan. But other subjects such as physics and chemistry were taught as well. As rangaku proved itself more practical and correct than Chinese knowledge, it grew in popularity. After the First Opium War and the arrival of Commodore Perry as Japanese could see western knowledge was necessary, and western learning exploded in popularity. Many of Meiji’s first leaders like Ōkuma Shigenobu, Katsu Kaishū, and Gotō Shōjirō were rangaku students in their youths. Others, like almost all the Chōshū men among the Meiji leaders, were influenced by teachers who had rangaku background, in this case Yoshida Shōin.
After the 1868 restoration, the major goal of the new government was catchup, which I wrote about the reason for here. As mentioned there, catchup means importing knowledge. This means setting up a system of education. The most influential of Meiji-era educator was without a doubt Fukuzawa Yukichi. He started learning Confucianism, before switching to rangaku in the Bakumatsu like many others. He opened his own rangaku school, what is now the prestigious Keiō University. He then learned English, went to the US, and then to Europe. He then returned to run his ever-expanding school, attracting students especially in English. He was well-learned, influential, and popular enough that he wrote on many subjects, including his thoughts on where the country should be headed, practical things like how to read the newly adopted western calendar, and was even asked by the population of modern Kanagawa to draft their petition for a representative assembly.
The person the Meiji government put in charge of education reform was Mori Arinori. Also first a Chinese- and then western-learning student in the Bakumatsu, he was among Satsuma’s first students sent to Great Britain, he then also went to Russia and the US. He and Fukuzawa were both founding members of the Meirokusha intellectual society. When Mori was given the post of education minister, he laid down the foundation of public education in Imperial Japan. He brought the wide-ranging local schools that had sprung up in the early years of the Meiji back under guidance of the central government by setting up a school for teachers in Tōkyō, whose graduates was obligated to serve ten years in provincial schools. He also set up a system of Imperial University, starting with what’s now Univiersity of Tokyo, with the goal of training the elite next generation. Graduates were honored by the emperor, qualified for government job without examinations, and also frequently had opportunities to study abroad after graduation.
Hiring foreign experts and sending students abroad, as mentioned in the previous thread, was an important way that the Meiji government hoped to acquire western knowledge. By 1872, close to 300 students were officially sent abroad, most of which were paid by either the central or the prefectural government. Perhaps the best demonstration for the government’s thirst to raise new talents, and integral to the scene of physics in Japan, is Yamakawa Kenjirō. Born to a samurai of Aizu domain, one of the leaders of the pro-Tokugawa side in the Bakumatsu, Yamakawa personally fought in the Boshin War against the Meiji government (he was 14). Despite this, Yamakawa and his younger sister were both sent abroad to study, paid for by the government. Yamakawa studied at Yale, earned a degree in physics, and then came back to Japan, and began teaching at the Imperial Univiersity of Tokyo, first teaching as an assistant professor (and translator) to western physics professors, and then as the first Japanese physics professor.
Another important person was Kikuchi Dairoku born to a rangaku scholar, he traveled to Britain in the early Meiji to study mathematics, where he graduated the top of his class, becoming the first Japanese to graduate from Cambridge. On returning to Japan, he became the first Japanese professor of mathematics, again at Imperial Univiersity of Tokyo. He presented Japan in 1884 at the international meeting to set the prime meridian at Greenwich. He was friends with Fukuzawa and an early member of the Meirokusha. Both Kikuchi and Yamakawa were later members of the House of Peers and advised the government on education.
Next up was Tanakadate Aikitsu. After the restoration, his family sent him to study in Tōkyō. He enrolled in Fukuzawa’s Keiō school, before the tuition fees proved too much. He was able to enter the Imperial Univiersity of Tokyo, where he learned math under Kikuchi and also physics under Yamakawa, and foreign experts like Alfred Ewing and Cargill Knott. After graduation, he went abroad to study at the University of Glasgow, where he got to work with Ewing’s teacher, Lord Kelvin. He later returned to teach and research physics at the Imperial Univiersity of Tokyo, and was the person to introduce the metrics system to Japan.
For a short time while Tanakadate was a student at the Imperial Univiersity of Tokyo, his flatmate was one Nagaoka Hantarō. Nagaoka also learned under Yamakawa and Knott. Afterwards he studied physics in Europe before returning to teach physics in the Imperial Univiersity of Tokyo. On the establishment of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) in 1917, Nagaoka became director of the physics division (Kikuchi was the first president). Nagaoka became the first president of the Imperial Univiersity of Osaka in 1931. During his time there he might have taken notice of a young assistant professor, for he was the person to first recommend Yukawa Hideki for the Nobel Prize in physics. Nagaoka was also the person to bring Nishina Yoshio into RIKEN. Nishina then brought in Tomonaga Shinichirō. All three famous physicists were products of Mori's education system.
So through a cultural background of importing knowledge in the Edo period, of the Meiji government’s efforts to catch up with the west, and of a string of talented individuals, Japan was able to very quickly catch up with the west in science in general, and physics specifically.
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r/詢問歷史學家
日本在 1900 年代初期在科學和物理學方面迅速趕上，他們是如何實現這一目標的？
我是物理學家，有趣的是，在物理學史上的很大一部分中，所有重要的名字都是歐洲或美國的，然後突然出現了湯川、朝原、仁科等等。
日本人不知從何而來，與其他人相比，他們是如何做到這一點的？
日本的歐洲科學基礎始於江戶時代。唯一被允許前往日本的歐洲人是荷蘭人（一些非荷蘭人撒了謊），他們被限制在長崎郊外的出島貿易港口，除了去江戶會見幕府將軍的官方任務。然而，這個通往歐洲的窗口讓大量科學知識流入了日本。歐洲知識被稱為“rangaku”或“荷蘭研究”。最受歡迎的領域是醫學（正如最近的咖啡主題中提到的，這就是咖啡首次引入日本的方式）和射擊領域，吸引了來自日本各地的學生。但也教授物理和化學等其他科目。隨著蘭學證明自己比中國知識更實用、更正確，它越來越受歡迎。第一次鴉片戰爭後，佩里準將到來後，日本人體認到西學的必要性，西學迅速流行。明治初期的許多領導人，如大隈重信、勝海舟和後藤正二郎，年輕時都是蘭學學生。其他人，就像明治領導人中的幾乎所有長州人一樣，受到有蘭樂背景的老師的影響，在這種情況下是吉田松陰。
1868年復闢後，新政府的主要目標是追趕，我在這裡寫了原因。正如那裡提到的，追趕意味著引進知識。這意味著建立一個教育體系。明治時代最有影響力的教育家無疑是福澤諭。他開始學習儒學，然後像許多其他人一樣在幕松轉向蘭學。他開設了自己的蘭學學校，即現在著名的慶應義塾大學。然後他學習英語，去了美國，然後去了歐洲。然後他回來經營他不斷擴大的學校，吸引了學生，尤其是英語學生。他學識淵博，影響力大，受歡迎，所以他的文章涉及很多主題，包括他對國家應該走向何方的想法，以及如何閱讀新採用的西方曆法等實際問題，甚至被現代人詢問。神奈川起草代表大會請願書。
明治政府指定負責教育改革的人是森有德。他也是幕末先是中國學生，然後是西學學生，是薩摩藩第一批派往英國的學生之一，隨後他也去了俄羅斯和美國。他和福澤都是名六社知識分子團體的創始成員。森喜朗就任文部大臣後，奠定了日本帝國公共教育的基礎。他在東京設立了一所師範學校，將明治初期興起的各種地方學校重新納入中央政府的指導之下，該學校的畢業生有義務在道立學校服務十年。他也建立了帝國大學系統，以現在的東京大學為起點，目標是培養下一代菁英。畢業生受到皇帝的嘉獎，無需考試即可入官，畢業後還常有出國留學的機會。
前文提到，聘請外國專家、派遣留學生是明治政府希望獲得西方知識的重要途徑。到1872年，已有近300名學生被正式派往國外，其中大部分由中央或縣政府支付。山川健二郎也許是政府渴望培養新人才的最佳證明，也是日本物理學界不可或缺的一部分。山川出身於會津藩武士家庭，是幕末親德川一方的領導人之一，曾親自參加了對抗明治政府的戊辰戰爭（當時他14歲）。儘管如此，山川和他的妹妹還是被政府出國留學。山川在耶魯大學學習，獲得物理學位，然後回到日本，開始在東京帝國大學任教，首先擔任西方物理學教授的助理教授（兼翻譯），然後成為日本第一位物理學家教授。
另一位重要人物是蘭學學者出身的菊地大六，他在明治初期前往英國學習數學，並以全班第一的成績畢業，成為第一位從劍橋大學畢業的日本人。返回日本後，他再次在東京帝國大學成為第一位日本數學教授。1884年，他在國際會議上介紹了日本在格林威治設定本初子午線的情況。他是福澤的朋友，也是名六社的早期成員。菊池和山川後來都成為貴族院議員，並為政府提供教育方面的建議。
接下來是田中館合木。光復後，家人送他到東京讀書。在學費過高之前，他就讀於福澤的慶應義塾學校。他得以進入東京帝國大學，在菊池老師的指導下學習數學，在山川老師的指導下學習物理，並師從阿爾弗雷德·尤因（Alfred Ewing）和卡吉爾·諾特（Cargill Knott）等外國專家。畢業後，他出國到格拉斯哥大學學習，並在那裡與尤因的老師開爾文勳爵一起工作。後來他回到東京帝國大學教授和研究物理學，並將度量系統引入日本。
田中館就讀東京帝國大學期間，曾有一段短暫的室友是長岡半太郎。長岡也在山川和諾特的指導下學習。之後，他在歐洲學習物理學，然後返回東京帝國大學教授物理學。1917年，理化學研究所（RIKEN）成立，長岡擔任物理部主任（菊池任首任所長）。1931年，長岡成為大阪帝國大學第一任校長。在校期間，他可能注意到了一位年輕的助理教授，因為他是第一個推薦湯川秀樹獲得諾貝爾物理學獎的人。長岡也是將仁科義雄帶入理化學研究所的人。仁科隨後請來了朝永慎一郎。這三位著名物理學家都是森喜朗教育體系的產物。
因此，憑藉江戶時代引進知識的文化背景，明治政府努力追趕西方的努力，以及一群人才的培養，日本在科學上能夠很快趕上西方，並且特別是物理學。
非常感謝您的回答。讀起來很有啟發性和樂趣。