[CCoE Notice] UH Ethics in Science Lecture Series Presents: The Devil¹s Heritage: Masuo Kodani, the ³Nisei Problem, ² and Social Stratification at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Japan (1946-1954)

[Grayson, Audrey A]

Title: The Devil’s Heritage: Masuo Kodani, the “Nisei Problem,” and Social Stratification at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Japan (1946-1954)
Speaker: Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, Ph.D., University of Florida
Date:  Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Time:  11:00 am to 12:30 pm
Cost: FREE and open to the public
Location:  Philip G Hoffman Hall, Room 232 (PGH-232) Main Campus, University of Houston
Contact and Phone Number:  Ioannis Pavlidis, Ph.D., 713-743-0101
Link:  http://www.uh.edu/ethicsinscience/Seminars/Vassiliki-Smocovitis.php
Summary: This talk focuses on Masuo Kodani, a Japanese American geneticist best known for his work in the human chromosome story and for his work with human geneticist James V. Neel. It follows his tumultuous career beginning at the University of California, Berkeley and his subsequent incarceration at Manzanar War Relocation Center and at Tule Lake where he, along with a cluster of incarcerated Japanese American scientists, horticulturalists and nursery owners, engaged in a little-known wartime study on guayule, a source of latex, a valuable wartime commodity. Smocovitis follows his subsequent appointment to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in Japan, the American agency sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council (NAS-NRC) and funded by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) that conducted research on the survivors of the atomic blasts. She explores at length his dual identity as intermediary between the survivors, and American officials and scientists collecting genetic data. His research and pivotal role in the organization of the Genetics Division is explored in the context of US-Japanese relations that drew on a number of "Nisei" or second generation Japanese Americans many of whom had similarly been interned and who functioned as intermediaries in the organization. She concludes with an assessment of Asian minorities in twentieth century in general and Japanese American minorities in particular.
Biography: Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis is Dunlevie Honors Term Professor in the Honors Program and Professor of the History of Science in the Departments of Biology and the Departments of History at the University of Florida.

Please see the attached flyers for more details.
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