The Planetary Society of Japan : Column

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YM COLUMN ARCHIVE

May 20, 2009

Send-off party to a great friend of mine

There is a town called Pasadena in the vicinity of Los Angeles, California. JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in this town is the institute where the satellite was designed for development as the America’s first man-made satellite “Explorer 1” by the team led by Wernher von Braun at the end of January 1958. I suppose some of you might have seen a picture three gentlemen hoisting its model high with their bursting joys.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/GAL100/images/exp1team.jpg

To the left of the picture is Dr. William H. Pickering, Director of JPL. For reference’s sake, center is Dr. James A. Van Allen, University of Iowa, who directed designing and manufacturing of the scientific instruments onboard this satellite and to the right is Von Braun.

In 1970’s, JPL was continuously sending large-scaled explorers such as Voyager and Viking into interplanetary space. Director of JPL at that time was Dr. Bruce Murray, a planetary geologist and a young leader of the institute of forty years of age. He, as an incumbent director, founded TPS (The Planetary Society) together with Dr. Carl Sagan and Dr. Louis Friedman, and worked hard since to have long carried quite some weight in space exploration of USA. What caused The Planetary Society of Japan founded mainly attributed to the passion of the late Mr. Jihei Akita after a spirit of Dr. Carl Sagan, however, it might have been difficult without valuable help from Bruce and Louis.

Bruce loves Japan so much and sometimes stayed at Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) at Sagamihara campus as a visiting professor. The other day he made one of his several visits to Japan and probably the last visit this time with his families and went back home after having enjoyed the visits to Kyoto, Kamakura and Hong Kong. The night before his departure for the States we had a farewell party at Japanese style pub “Senryo” in Fuchinobe with cups of oolong tea. He is seventy-seven years old now. Some of his gestures appeared typical of old age having made me covertly wiped my tears welling eyes. This was a little party I saw him last in Japan.

I asked him, “As a geologist, what aspect of Japan interests you most?” He answered at once, “It’s volcano and earthquake” and further said, “No other country is more interesting than Japan in studying a celestial body called earth” and added by winking, “Cuisine of sushi and sashimi is another good of Japan, though”. He turned to question me, “Do Japanese themselves study hard their own geology?” to which I answered, “They may have quite a knowledge, but if energetically study it or not is a little questionable”. He replied, “That’s too bad”. “Particularly, for making children interested in earth, volcano and earthquake are the best subjects, because here in Japan they can be daily in contact with them” was his advice.

It rang a bell in my mind. In case of “space education”, we usually give them lessons typical of “space education”, and we begin from something we know well or from something we earnestly want to teach. Bruce’s advice reminded me anew the golden rule that we must begin from something based upon children’s own experiences and from some materials really close to their daily lives.

There are one hundred and eight active volcanoes in Japan such as Mt. Fuji, Mt. Asama and Sakurajima. And those Japanese children don’t make a fuss at low-leveled magnitude, while in Europe, many adults get panicked even at a little shaking.

That night we talked and talked, and I sent him and his families to their hotel in a taxi, when I felt as if my heart were left behind and something dark shadow of hard raining was felt a void in my empty heart. See you again, if possible!

I welcome your opinions on this column to the following E-mail address.
matogawa@planetary.or.jp

(Translated by The Planetary Society of Japan)