1 / 22 / 2016 [Topics]
On the Release of John Milne Documentary “The Man Who Mapped the Shaking Earth” with Japanese Subtitles
Akenori Shibata*
When we describe the history of the development of seismology and earthquake engineering in Japan, John Milne would surely be the first person to be taken up.
John Milne (1850 – 1913) was born in Liverpool, England. He came to Japan in 1876 as the foreign professor of mining and geology at the Engineering College of The Imperial University of Tokyo, after the long journey of 7 months by land whole through the Asian continent, via Petersburg, Moscow, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Pekin, by train, ship, carriage, camel and so on.
Greatly shocked by experiencing the 1880 Yokohama Earthquake, he started investigating earthquake phenomena. The Seismological Society of Japan, the first academic society of seismology in the world, was settled in 1880 by his energetic effort. He invented the new types of seismographs together with Games Ewing, Thomas Gray, and energetically expanded the new field of earthquake science. He published 14 volumes of the bulletin of the Seismological Society of Japan and the successive 4 volumes from 1880 to 1895 almost by himself.
He married Tone, daughter of Ganjyoji Temple in Hakodate, and spent 19 years in Japan. Then he returned to England and worked eagerly on the global network of earthquake observation at Shide, Newport, Isle of Wight, which is thought to be the origin of the research on earth structure.
In 2013, the year commemorating the 100 years from his death, Mr. William Twycross, who is an obstetrician living in Australia and a relative of John Milne, has completed an excellent documentary video of John Milne’s life, entitled “The Man Who Mapped the Shaking Earth”. At the Carisbrooke Castle Museum at New Port, where Milne spent the latter half of life, this video is being shown constantly. The writer and Prof. Toshimi Kabeyasawa, Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, had the chance of helping his filming trip in Japan and document acquisition.
This time, The Japan Association for Earthquake Engineering decided to release the documentary video with Japanese subtitles under the permission of the author. The work of translation into Japanese and making of subtitles was done by Mrs. Fides Umemura, PhD, the Univ. of Tokyo, and supervised personally by Prof. Hisashi Umemura, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Prof. Kabeyasawa and the writer.
The very fascinating documentary of John Milne, a great adventurer and traveler, an enthusiastic researcher, and a man of excellent humanity, i.e., a polymath, will give us hope and encouragement toward unlimited possibilities of human being. We wish this documentary will be seen by as many people in the field of seismology and earthquake engineering as possible.
Use Conditions
Mr. Twycross has generously provided permission for the video to be freely distributed if it is used for educational purposes and is not sold.
Video Download Link : “The Man Who Mapped the Shaking Earth” with Japanese Subtitles (mp4 file, 196 MB)
(*: Professor Emeritus, Tohoku University)
