Draft, revised, d.d. 17  dec. 2002 by Togo Tsukahara. (Japanese version is here.)

 

Announcement of an establishment of

"the East Asian Network

for the Environment History and Climate Change"

 

Co-Organized by

Professor Doctor Takehiko Mikami, Tokyo Metropolitan University

Doctor Togo Tsukahara, Kobe University.

 

 

as a starting up of this network, we will organize:

 

 

International Symposium

for the East Asian Network for

the Environment History and Climate Change

 

 

 

This will take place at Kobe University, on 12(Sunday), January, 2003.  (Map)

 

 

 

Perspective, purpose and aims, topics to be covered, in this Symposium

 

 

The organizers, Mikami and Tsuakhara, have been working together on historical reconstruction of 19th century Japanese climate, since 1997.

As a scientist, Mikami’s speciality is climatorogy and meteorology, while as a STS (Science, Technology and Society) activist, Tsukahara is working in the discipline of history of science.

Our cooperation project on the historical reconstruction of 19th century Japanese climate is successful, and thanks to our colleague in the Netherlands and UK, we have had a Dutch-Japanese History of Meteorology Symposium in Nagasaki in 1999, and publish some academic papers together.

The organizers are now trying to extend our research perspectives.  We are trying to include Korean and Chinese perspectives, namely the East Asia, in our currently working climate reconstruction project of Japan.  We are still working on the 19th century materials, time perspective will also reviewed: Mikami is dealing with longer term climate change in the scale of 1000 years and working on contemporary issues such as urban climate and global warming, and Tsukahara is trying to include the history of meteorology in the perspective of introduction of modern Western sciences in Japan and East Asia, after the early encounter of the Western culture of the East Asia since the 16th Century.

For our new project, we are now having this symposium, and we have an idea that, this will be a good opportunity to enhence exchange between historians and meteorologists and climatorogists. Also, this can be a good chance to organize the forum for the concerned scientists on the global warming issue and historians of sciences.

 

Plan:    

 

 

12th Jan. 2003　Session at Kobe University.

Am10:15  Opening Remarks by Professor Doctor Takehiko Mikami.

 

　

Scientific Sessions : Methodology of Historical Approach to Reconstruction of Climate

 

Chaired by

Hideto Nakajima (History of Science and Technology, Chief administrator of Japan STS Society), Tokyo Institute of Technology.  And Katsunori Imazu (Japanese Ancient History), Okayama University.

 

am10:30-11:00

Nakatsu, Matsumoto and Tsukahara  (Kobe University HPS/STS group, History of Meteorology team):

Introduction of Medern Meteorology in Japan: Early Instrumental Observations in Kobe and Japanese Acceptance of Meteorology as Modern Humboltian and Baconian Science.  ( in French, with translation in Japanese)

 

am11:00-11:30


Doctor Yasuyuki Aono (Osaka Metropolitan University)


Efflorescence of Kyoto Cherry since 10th Centruy based on historical documents and estimation of temperature through its interpretation  (in Japanese)

 

am11:30-12:00

Prof. Kam-biu Liu (Louisiana State Univ.) 


"Documentary records of typhoon landfalls in China during the past 1,000 years: Historical climatology and societal implications"   (in English/Japanese)

 

 

 

am12:00-pm1:00  Lunch Break

 

 

Special Theme Session: Korean History and Climate

 

Chaired by Masaki Nakamura (STS, Assitant Professor of Tokyo University, Advanced Technology Research Institute) and Hyang-Hee UM (Meteorological Research Institute/KMA)

 

pm1:00-1:45

Chun Youngsin (Meteorological Research Institute/KMA )


Asian Dust Events in Korea over Historical Times.  (in Engllish, with translation)

 

pm1:45-2:15 


Im Jonhyok (North Korean University, Japan)


Historiography of Korean history of meteorology in and after Japanese Colonial Period

(in Japanese)

 

pm2:15-2:30  Q&A, and discussions.

 

 

pm2:30-3:00  Coffee Break

 

 

Public Lectures (pm3:00-5:00)

Review of reconstruction of historical climate and present environmental problem: Cross Section of history and contemporary issues.

 

Chiared by Prof. Dr. Osamu Kanamori, (History and Philosophy of Science, known by his book, “Science Wars”(in Japanese, published in 2000.), Tokyo University

 

Pm3:00-4:00


Prof. Dr. James Fleming   Colby College USA (Professor and Director, Science, Technology and Society Program). American Meteorological Society, and President of the International Commission on History of Meteorology.


"Global Climate Change and the History of Science."

(in English, with Translation)

 

Prof. Dr. J. R. Fleming is the leading historian of meteorology, internationally know by several standard works on the subject, and his recent works are covering contemporary topics of thye relationship between climate change and history of meteorology. 

At this occasion, he will follow closely the topics in his recent article, James Rodger Fleming,

"Global Environmental Change and the History of Science." Pp. 634-50 in Cambridge History of Science, vol. 5, The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences, edited by Mary Jo Nye.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

 

 

Pm4:00-4:45


Takehiko Mikami (Professor of Tokyo Metropolitan University), Masumi Zaiki and Mika Ichino (Mikami school), Research activities of Japanese climate reconstructions and their

climatological significance  (in Japanese)

 

 

 

(It is regretful to announce that Prof. Pay Bradley informed us that he can not participate this symposium.)

 

pm4:45-5:00   Q&A, and discussions

 

pm5:30-   Reception at Kobe University.

 

 

For the following foreign language speakers, there is a partly translating service (whispering on the spot) at the lectures given in Japanese.  Please inform us in advance. 

English, French, Dutch, Indonesian, Koren and Chinese.

 

 

Outlines of Scientific Sessions and Topical Session

 

1 About Korean history of climate, and Korean history of meteorology


In Korea, at Lee Dynasty it is famous that there were official order for measureing rain fall by their rain gauge since 15th century onward. 

Korean Meteorological Agent is now interested in history.  One of the researchers at the Korean Institute of Meteeorology, Doctor Youngsin Chun, is working on the meteorological description in the Korean Dynasty Chronology.   She has published some papers on the phenomena such as fall of yellow sand (Kosa) and Early Summer rainy season (Baiu) in history.

A big problem in historical studies on Korean meteorology is, however, those historical records related to this Korean historical heritage is partly destroied and confiscated by the Japanese colonialists and Colonial government.  The Imperial Japanese Korean Observatory, then stationed at Inchon,  collected historical materials, and studied by the Japanese researchers, such as the Director of the Institute, Dr. Yuji Wada.  Now Wada’s archief is found in Tokyo, at the Library of the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The work of Dr. Sennosuke Tamura, a post-war North Korean sympathizer and the author of Korean history of meteorology, has long been neglected because of political reason.  Recently, thanks to the progress of North-South talk of historians of sciences such as between Prof. Song (South Korea) and Prof. Im JonHyok (Korean University, North Korean Ethnic University in Japan), which took place January 2002, within the framework of Kobe International Symposium last year, Dr. Tamura’s work can be reviewed with the first hand materials, which he left at his family, for which Prof. Im is familiar with.

So in our Symposium, we invite both Dr. Chun Youngsin and Prof. Im JonHyok, and it is our pleasure that they agreed to have a talk together on the present situation of historical research on Korean climate, and historiographical problems on Korean history of meteorology, respectively.  We organizers are hoping that such meeting will contribute enhancement of mutual understanding between scientists and historians, as well as South and North Korean scholars.

 

2 Various Sessions on East Asian Climate in History


Topics that should be covered in Japan, is about Mikami and Tsukahara Project, on the Reconstruction of 19th Century Japanese Climate through instrumental data. Both Mikami’s and Tsukahara’s students and their research group of Tokyo Metropolitan University and Kobe University will give some presentations on research in progress.

Aono is a young and rising researchers dealing with the related issue of ours. Aono’s approach methodology is rather scientific. 

Liu’s presentation on Typhoon in Asia is aiming at comprehensive and systematic analysis in terms of 1000 years. 

 

The organizers of our Symposium is hoping the meeting and discussion between us will result in fruitful intellectual exchange and further research co-operation.

 

N.B.   Program may be submitted to have changes.  Please catch up current progress at   http://homepage2.nifty.com/tsukaken

 

Contact:  Togo Tsukahara, BYZ06433@nifty.com, or tel./fax.+81-78-803-7435

(end.  Dec.10  version, by Tsukahara)

Japanese version is here.

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