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During the rush toward modernization which took place in Japan during the Meiji period, that is, the last decades of the 19th century and the first twelve years of the new century, it was perhaps natural that the emphasis in the new universities which were being established should be on applied disciplines such as engineering and medicine.¹ Nevertheless, "pure" fields such as physics were not entirely neglected. Aikitsu Tanakadate and Hantaro Nagaoka led the way during the early 1890's by studying Newtonian physics and 19th century additions such as thermodynamics and what would later be called statistical mechanics. The Japanese government in its efforts to catch up to European countries financed the overseas study of numerous students, scholars, and professors. For example, Hantaro Nagaoka studied under Helmholtz in Berlin and later under Boltzmann at Munich.²

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-011-2771-4_16

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