Archive of historical materials
Letter from Shin-ichiro Tomonaga to Yukawa (1935.1.23)
OU1934-B6 (4 pages) Date: January 23, 1935
This is a letter sent to Yukawa from Shin-ichiro Tomonaga, who was then living in Komagome, Hongo-ku, Tokyo. At first, Tomonaga was sending letters to the address at Uchiawaji-machi, Higashi-ku, Osaka, but Yukawa had moved from there to Kurakuen, Rokko, Nishinomiya. Tomonaga’s letters to Yukawa’s previous address were forwarded to Genyo Yukawa, father of Sumi Yukawa.
Yukawa announced his famous meson theory in November of the previous year (1934). Tomonaga took a great interest in the theory. Interestingly enough, Tomonaga started the letter by saying that Dr. Nishina wanted to conduct an experiment to destroy the nucleus with an electron so he worked on theoretical calculations. The letter continued, “The result of the calculations indicated a very small value as expected and the attempt was pathetic.” Tomonaga asked Yukawa to send a reprint of the manuscript of his paper or a copy of printer’s proof. He also wrote that Dr. Kobayashi’s letter to Dr. Sakata described about the discussion that Tomonaga and Dr. Kobayashi had in a coffee shop and he regretted having said what he said..
Near the end of the letter, Tomonaga gripes. “I am frustrated by Dr. Nishina for not completing the final version of the calculations Dr. Kobayashi and I did together… This is just between you and me.” Yukawa and Tomonaga were confidant friends. (Written by Yutaka Hosotani)
