Within the general history of fusion research in Japan regarding the decision for the A-B plans dispute during 1959, the B-plan (promptly building medium-sized devices that had obtained some success in foreign countries) was postponed. Furthermore, it was decided that the national policy for fusion research in Japan would start with basic research using the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (MoE) budget. Accordingly, it was decided that the Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) at Nagoya University would bear the responsibilities and consequences of the A-plan (promoting the basic research to develop the original ideas). However, our research concludes that the IPP is related to not only the A-plan but also the B-plan.
Kodi Husimi, the chairman of Kakuyugo Tokubetsu-Iinkai [Special Committee for Nuclear Fusion (SCNF)], and Eiichi Kawasaki, the secretary of SCNF, were planning to reconcile the opposing opinions regarding the B-plan. To find a solution, they planned an informal gathering of researchers which was held on June 21, 1959. After an informal gathering, the opposing plan of
B-plan was to establish the institute under the jurisdiction of the MoE proposed by Kawasaki. Kawasakiʼs plan was a reasonable compromise, because the institute included assumptions about the construction of the medium-sized devices under the MoE budget. Many researchers agreed to this plan; however, some supporters on the B-plan did not agree inwardly and distanced themselves from the IPP.
This paper examines how mass screening for tuberculosis was implemented in wartime Japan. A tuberculosis mass screening program for the entire Japanese population began with the National Physical Fitness Management System (1940). This approach reflected the latest theories in Japanese tuberculosis pathology that primary infection would develop into an active disease more frequently. Under the total war system, the mass screening program divided the population according to the status of tuberculosis infection and contraction, with a focus on the prevention of the disease in those infected for the first time. Those classified as “previously infected healthy individuals,” a term introduced for screening, were considered more desirable than the uninfected because they were supposed to have gained “immunity” to the disease after a certain period of time had passed since the primary infection. They were not only said to be the safest against tuberculosis but also as those who had overcome the danger of developing tuberculosis and acquired a strong body that could endure discipline and labor. This paper argues that the tuberculosis mass screening program emphasized the acquisition of immunity and that the new tuberculosis control system was built based on the concept of “previously infected healthy individuals.”