Oral history interview with Harry C. Kelly, 1975 October 27.

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Oral history interview with Harry C. Kelly, 1975 October 27.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/82331321

Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Lehigh University; Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, experimental thesis on electron distribution on Townsend discharge with Philip Morse and John Slater; reflections on studying physics, funding during the Depression. Postgraduate employment as engineer at American Thermos Co., established Baird Associates, a medical engineering firm in Cambridge, MA. Influence on him of the death of his brother. Montana State University as physicist, 1937; discovered procedure for identifying diseased potatoes; appointment as Professor of Horticulture; study of Great Books at St. Johns College with Scott Buchanan. Recruitment by William Shockley and Slater for MIT Radiation Laboratory, 1942; routine measurements on cathode tubes with Wayne B. Nottingham; reactions to dropping of the bomb. Invited by Gerry Fox to work in Japan; early period as science advisor; difficulty carrying out his job as intermediary between U.S. military and Japanese scientific community due to unavailability of information; contacts with Von Kolnitz and O'Brien (Joint Chiefs of Staff); development and implementation of policy in Japan, decision against censorship of publications; Karl Compton's recommendations, Walter Michel's diary, MacArthur, the Brink group. Development of relationships with Japanese scientists; Yoshio Nishina; self policing; the undestroyed cyclotron at Riken; the language problem and Kelly's interpreter Masao Yoshida. Overview of the Japanese scientific establishment (Ryokichi Sagane, Hiroshi Tamiya). Publications originating from Kelly's office pertaining to the period of the Occupation. Postwar resumptions of relations between Japanese scientists and the international scientific community; the re-organization of Japanese science and its application to current problems in the United States. Japanese views about the war. History of the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC), Jerrold R. Zacharias' and James R. Killian's roles; National Science Foundation (NSF) input and political aspects.

Transcript, 96 pp.

American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 8280533

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