2019 Volume 28 Issue 3 Pages 237-257
This article addresses the history of the earth sciences department at Nagoya University, during 1942‒1967. The department was quite unique and distinctive in that it had chikyu kagaku 地球科学 (earth sciences) on its title for the first time in Japanese universities, and it started to publish The Journal of Earth Sciences (1953‒1991), the first "earth science" journal in the world. This article has seven sections. After the first, introductory section, the second section describes the embryonic idea of an earth sciences department which occurred to the mind of the chemist Ken Sugawara (1899-1982). The third section explains the personal connections and the first interdisciplinary collaboration among the founding scholars which led to the founding of the department. The fourth section describes the development of the department from the institutional viewpoint-the faculty members, the department buildings, and the journal. The fifth section lays out the different perspectives on earth sciences held by the founding scholars, in the early stage of the department. The sixth section highlights the fruits of "earth sciences" department during the 1960s. The seventh section explores the implications of movements concerning the earth sciences department. Contrary to the common image of the earth science well established after the Plate Tectonic Revolution in 1967, this article stresses the uniqueness and originality of "earth sciences" at Nagoya University during 1942‒1967-although the department did not achieve the real unification of a singular "earth science."
