Yamagiwa and the Origins of Chemical Carcinogenesis

East Asia Center

Japan Studies Program

Friday November 21, 2014
3:30-5:00 PM
Allen Library, Allen Auditorium

James Bartholomew, Emeritus Professor Ohio State University

Sponsored by he UW Japan Studies Program and Seattle Art Museum Garden Center for Asian Art and Ideas. Bartholomew will also present at the Seattle Art Museum November 22 in the Stimson Auditorium. For ticket information visit: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/GardenCenter/default.asp

For more information please contact japan@uw.edu

During World War I whose centennial we presently acknowledge, a little-known professor of pathology at Tokyo University – Katsusaburo Yamagiwa – proved for the first time that chemical exposure can cause cancer in human beings and some other animals. He and his associate, Koichi Ichikawa, generated cancer in a laboratory setting by painting coal tar on the epithelial tissue of rabbits’ ears. This was a path-breaking achievement in the history of modern medicine and its implications resonate to this day. The generation of tumors took about 22 months. Convincing everyone they had succeeded took another eight years. And proper recognition took considerably longer (perhaps a dozen more). What did it mean? And why should we care? The reasons are multi-faceted and complex, and will be explored in this seminar.

Professor Bartholomew is a specialist in modern Japanese history, chiefly interested in the history of science, medicine, higher education, and business in Japan. In 1985-86, he held a research fellowship from the National Science Foundation. His 1989 book, The Formation of Science in Japan received the 1992 Pfizer Award of the History of Science Society and was issued in paperback in February 1993. In March 2001, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship to write a book on Japan and the Nobel science prizes, 1901-1949.