La mer
Online ISSN : 2434-2882
Print ISSN : 0503-1540
Why did the bathyscaphe FNRS III come to Japan in 1958 ? The beginning of French-Japanese cooperation in the field of oceanography
Teruhisa Komatsu Hubert-Jean CECCALDI
Author information
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2024 Volume 61 Issue 3-4 Pages 87-105

Details
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of why the bathyscaphe FNRS III came to Japan in May 1958 and how it explored Japan Trench with Japanese and French scientists. Launched in Toulon in 1953, the FNRS III was the most advanced submersible in the world at the time. Professor Tadayoshi Sasaki of Tokyo University of Fisheries who had been conducting deep-sea research in Japan, spent seven months at the Institut océanographique of Paris from January 1956. Then, he met Professor Louis Fage of the Museum National dʼHistoire naturelle and the Institut océanographique who was President of Comité de Direction du Bathyscaphecf et de la Calypso. After some persuasion by Professor Sasaki, Professor Fage promised to send the bathyscaphe to Japan. Professor Sasaki with another Japanese organisations prepared to accept FNRS III in Japan. The bathyscaphe arrived in Japan in May 1958 and descended into the Japan Trench and surrounds to achieve valuable findings. Based on them, the Japanese-French Oceanographic Society (SFJO) was established in Japan in April 1960 to develop and deepen French-Japanese cooperation in oceanography and fisheries science. The SFJO has been promoting and contributing to cooperations between the two countries in the fields of oceanography and fisheries science since then.
Content from these authors
© 2024 The Japanese-French Oceanographic Society
Next article
feedback
Top