2.9 The Growth of Electron Microscopy in Japan: 2.9A Introduction

Publisher Summary The rise of electron optics and its application to electron microscopy in the early 1930s in Germany had been watched with keen interest by foresighted scientists in Japan. The stimulating innovation of the electron microscope, which had exceeded the light microscope in resolution at the hands of Knoll and Ruska, although the report came only later to Japan, inspired to initiate without delay independent studies of electron microscopy in several places in Japan. To promote studies of electron microscopy and its applications more comprehensively, the need for a research committee was strongly promoted by Prof. S. Seto, Tokyo Imperial University and Dr. K. Kasai, Electrotechnical Laboratory. Thus a committee, the 37th Subcommittee of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), was started on 6 May 1939 in Tokyo, gathering active research workers. The subcommittee lasted until 1947, with some changes of members throughout World War II, and was re-formed as a collaborative research committee on electron microscopy supported by a grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture,