Values of "pure science": Nishina Yoshio's wartime discourse between nationalism and physics, 1940-1945

Abstract

This paper discusses Nishina Yoshio's attitude toward World War II and scientific research during the war. Nishina was the leading Japanese physicist in interwar Japan and the chief scientist of Japan's wartime nuclear power project. The paper describes how Nishina was caught between conflicting norms of his professional and national identities and how he tried to resolve the conflicts.