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Home , Order of Culture, Yoichiro Nambu

862 I Nambu, Yoichiro

Poverty and Race Action Council, Simon Wiesenthal References Museum of Tolerance, and Japanese American Gordon, Larry. 1989. "Asian-American Wins Fight forTen­ National Museum. He has remained involved in both ure at UCLA." Los Angeles Times, May 26. of his alma maters, serving on the board of the Associ­ Kawashima, Yoshjmi 2009. "Don Nakanishi: The Roots of an Asian American Studies Visionary." Discover ation of Yale Alumni and the Harvard University Nikkei, September 23. Graduate Alumni Council. In 1988, more than 40 years Nakanishi, Don. 1986. "Asian American Politics: An after the signing of Executive Order 9066 and the Agenda forResearch." Amerasia Journal 12(2): 1-27. internment of -including Naka­ Tobar, Hector. 2010. "A Journey Back to East L.A." Los p nishi's parents and older brother-during World War Angeles Times, A ril 9. f II, the United States Congress established the Civil Yale University Office of Public Afairs. 2008. "Associa­ tion of Yale Alumni Names Yale Medalists." Yale Liberties Public Education Fund as part of the Civil Bulletin, September 11. Liberties Act. Nakanishi would later be appointed by President Bill Clinton to the CLPEF, responsible for educating the public and providing materials for research on the circumstances and history of Japanese Nambu, Yoichiro ( 1921-) American internment. Nakanishi has won several prestigious accolades is a leading Japanese American theo­ for his accomplishments. In 2007, he received the retical who made fundamental contributions National Community Leadership Award from the to our understanding of the interactions between Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies. His elementary particles as nature's building blocks. He work with the Institute includes the joint formation, shared the in for 2008. with AASC, of a Leadership Academy for Elected Yoichiro Nambu was born on January 18, 1921, in Officials, an annual program dedicated to providing to father Kichiro Nambu, a young man who ran leadership training to Asian American and Pacific away from his business-oriented family to study En­ Islander politicians. In 2008, Nakanishi received the glish literature at in Tokyo, and Yale Medal from Yale University in recognizance of mother Kimiko. Following the 1923 earthquak.e, the his advocacy of Asian American issues and service to ambus moved from the devastated Tokyo to the the university. In 2009, he was the inaugural recipient father's hometown of where he became a school of the Engaged Scholar Award of the Association of teacher. Asian American Studies. Reading science books that his father gave him Nakanishi retired as director of theAASC in 2009. and taking science courses in school led Yoichiro, with He was succeeded by David K. Yoo, a professor in the Thomas Edison as his inventor hero, to become inter­ Depaitment of Asian American Studies at UCLA and a ested in biology, mathematics, and physics. When still former chair of the Departments of Asian American in grade school, Nambu built a radio set using elec­ Studies and History at the Claremont Colleges in tronic parts left by a deceased uncle. In 1937, he fin­ Claremont, California. ished high school in Fukui, entered a higher school in Nakanishi is married to Mai·sha Hirano-Nakanishi, Tokyo for three years, and then enrolled in the the assistant vice chancellor for Academic Research Imperial in 1940. Inspired by and Resources at the CaliforniaState University Office , an internationally respected Japanese of the Chancellor. The two have a son, Thomas Naka­ physicist, Nambu chose to study physics and gradu­ nishi. In 2006, the family established the Nakanishi ated in 1942 with an MS degree. He stayed on at the Prizeat Yale, an annual award given to two graduating university as a research associate but was soon drafted seniors with an excellent record of leadership in into the Japanese army as a soldier for one year and enhancing racial and ethnic relations at the university. then worked in a radar laboratory, especially in subma­ Winston Chou rine detection, for two years until the end of the war. Nambu, Yo ichiro I 863

In 1945, he maffied Chieko Hida and they would have with and Leon . Cooper at the Univer­ a son, Jun-ichi. sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on superconduc­ In 1946, Nambu returned to his associate position tivity (it became known as the BCS theory following at the University of Tokyo, but moved to Osaka City the initials of the three ). The talk presented University in 1949 as an associate professor of phys­ a puzzle to Nambu because the superconducting fluid ics. When there, he completed and submitted a thesis did not conserve the number of particles, which in on to his alma mater and physics was called a breaking of symmetry. Nambu received a doctor of science degree in 1952. Through­ used his expertise in to propose an out this period, he was oftenon the verge of starvation explanation: a particle is like a dog choosing between because of severe foodshmt ages but thrived scientifi­ two identical bowls of food in that it oscillates in the cally, working on a variety of topics in physics, rang­ process, which according to quantum physics creates ing from solid state physics to quantum fieldtheor y, a new particle called . ambu and other physi­ by himself and with others in a community of talented cists soon elaborated on the idea of "oscillation creat­ physicists led by Yukawa and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga. ing a new particle" and foundthat it applied not only In 1952, N ambu spent two years visiting the Insti­ to the BCS theory but also to many particlesin particle tute forAdva nced Study in P1inceton, New Jersey, at physics as well. In fact it became a key of the modem the invitation of its director, the well-known American theory of elementary particles. physicist J. RobertOppenhei mer, probably upon the rec­ Described by colleagues as a powerful, visual, and ommendation of Tomonaga or Yukawa. Although foresighted thinker, Nambu would go on to make other Nambu (and later his wifeand son who joined him) fundrunental discoveries in particle physics, including enjoyed the living conditions in the United States, he the founding of the . At the University of did not make as much scientificprogr ess in nuclear Chicago, he was promoted to full professorin 1958 but physics as he had hoped at Princeton. He also feltsome­ recognition forhis theoriestook a while to materialize. what intimidated by , C. N. Yang, and He was made Distinguished Service Professor at T. D. Lee, some of the most brilliant physicists at the Chicago in 1971 and two years later was elected a institute at the time. Nevertheless, dreading the poor member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and living conditions in , Nambu searched for a way in 1982 he received the National Medal of Sciences from to stay in the United States after his Princeton term President Ronald Reagan in the White House. He pro­ ended. He received an offer from the University of Chi­ moted U.S.-Japan scientificcoll aboration and was cago and went there in 1954 as a research associate to bestowed the by the government of work with one of its faculty members, Marvin Gold­ Japan in 1978. The Nobel Prize eluded him until he was berger, on dispersion theorythat had to do with the inter­ 87 years old-"T'd been told that I was on the list for actions of and particles. In Chicago Nambu many, many years"-and then when it finally came he encountered some racial prejudice offcam pus, but he said "I was verysu rprisedwh en I got the news" (Manier). enjoyed the collegial atmosphere at the university much The two corecipients of the obel-Makoto Kobayashi more than at Princeton. He tlu:ived scienti fically and and Toshihide Masukawa of Japan-both acknowledged was made an associate professor in 1956, which led to Nambu's influence as an inspiration forthem. his permanent settlement in the United States and later Zuoyue Wang naturalization as an American citizen in 1970. See also Japanese Americans It was in Chicago in the late 1950s that Nambu conducted a study on "spontaneous symmetry breaking" (SSB) that eventually won him the Nobel References Prize. His success demonstrates the importance of sci­ Ashrafi, Babak. 2004. "Interview with Dr. Yoichiro entificcommu nication and interdisciplinary cross­ Nambu." July 16. Available at the Library fe1tilization. It started when he heard a talk at Chicago and Archives Website. http://www.aip.org/history/ by J. Robert Schrieffer describing his recent research ohilist/30538.html. Accessed March 2010. 864 I National Maritime Union (NMU) and Chinese Seamen

Brown, Laurie M. l 986. "Yoichiro Nambu: The First Forty 50,000 Chinese seamen in Hong Kong organized the Years." Progress of Supplement Lien Yi Society and demanded higher wages from no. 86: 1 -11. Madhusree, Mukerjee. 1995. "String and : The Seer British shipping companies. Their striketied up 1 66 Saw Them All [Profile: Yoichiro ambu]." Scientific ships belonging to 1.6stea mship companies. In the cel­ American 272 (February): 37-39. ebrated 1 925-1 926 Canton-Hong Kong general strike, Manier, Jeremy. 2008. "U. of C. Physicist Wins obel." 20,000 Chinese seamen responded to the call to protest Chicago Tribune, October 8, p. 24. Britain's slaughter of Chinese workers in Shanghai. They completely paralyzed the Hong Kong harbor for nearly a year. But soon thereafter a split developed within the Lien Yi Society leadership between those Nathoy, Lalu supporting the Nationalists and the Communists, and the activism of the seamen waned. Bemis, Polly (Lalu Nathoy); Perspective 1; Bemis, In the 1930s American rank-and-file seamen, fed Polly (Lalu Nathoy); Perspective 2 up with their ineffective "company union," the Sea­ See men's International Union (SIU), formed a new labor National Civil Rights Movement Against organization, the National Maritime Union ( MU). They pledged to run it democratically, without dis­ Anti-Asian Violence crimination based on race, color, political affiliation, religion, or national origin in their membership . Chin, Vincent During the national strike of 1936-1937, the NMU See recrnited some 20,000 black seamen and reached out to the Chinese, who occupied the lowest menial posi­ National Maritime Union (NMU) and tions and were paid one-third less forthe ir work. Chi­ Chinese Seamen nese activists revived the Lien Yi Society and mobilized 3,000 Chinese to get offt heir ships and join After the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chi­ the picket lines. In return,the NMU supported the Chi­ nese were forced out of the American labor market. nese demand fore qual pay and the rightto shore leave. White workers refused to work alongside them, and Even though the Chinese never gained the full right of they demanded that employers not hire them. As a shore leave, many continued to work with the MU. result, the Chinese were excluded from the American They convinced the union to suppott the Chinese war labor movement as well and from all the benefitspar­ of resistance against Japan by ordering its membership ticipation would have entailed, especially during the to refuse to load scrap iron heading for Japan. heady days of industrial labor organizing of the In December 194 1 , when the United States for­ 1 930s. One of the few exceptions was the Chinese mally entered World War II, President Roosevelt initi­ seamen. ated a Lend-Lease program to ship weapons and During the Great Depression, when thousands of supplies to our allies, England and the Soviet Union. American seamen were unemployed, the U.S. shipping As convoys of these "liberty ships" crossed the companies preferred to hire foreign crews, including Atlantic, they came under intensive attacks by German Chinese, because of the conditions they could impose U-boats. By the end of 1 942, the first year of U.S. par­ on them. The Chinese were forced to sign contracts ticipation in the war, almost 4 percent of all the U.S. that allowed the company to withhold 50 percent of merchant seamen were dead or missing-four times their wages until their discharge. They also had to post the combined losses of the army, navy, marine corps, a $50 bond to guarantee compliance and promise not and the coast guard duringt he same period. These high to join any unions. casualties led to the aggressive recruitment of 15,000 Chinese seamen had a history of militancy. In Chinese seamen from China to serve on U.S. and 1 922, under the leadership of the Nationalist Party, British merchant ships. Hundreds of them lost their