My Father, My Grandfather

My Father, My Grandfather

Takako Masamune, Hiroko Masamune, and Tohoru Masamune*

Note from the Editor:It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I introduce this essay which accompanies the publicationof the fourth segment of the Tetsuo Nozoe Autograph Books. In the conceptualization stages of thisproject—which shall appear in 15 consecutive issues of The Chemical Record as well as have asignificant internet presence—I proposed to my colleagues Eva Wille and Brian Johnson that eachsegment be accompanied with a specially invited essay or perspective. This proposal was immediately andenthusiastically accepted. To both celebrate the life and warmth of Tetsuo Nozoe, I can hardly imaginea more appropriate essay than one written by two of his grandchildren and one of his own children! Ithank the Masamune Family for their touching contribution to this project. The Nozoe Autograph Booksand all the accompanying essays, including this essay, are open access for at least a three-year period at:http://www.tcr.wiley-vch.de/nozoe.

Jeffrey I. Seeman

Guest Editor,University of Richmond

Richmond, Virginia 23173, USA

1. Introduction

Tetsuo and Kyoko Nozoe had four children, a son (Shigeo),and three daughters (Takako, Yoko, and Yuriko; see Figures 1and 2). In 1956, Takako married one of Tetsuo’s students,Satoru Masamune. Satoru and Takako had two children, adaughter (Hiroko) and then a son (Tohoru). Sadly, Satorupassed away in 2003. We, the Masamune family, were asked byJeffrey Seeman, editor of the Nozoe Autograph Book Project,to tell a bit about Tetsuo and our experiences with him, and sohere are a few of our stories. We hope you will enjoy a little bitof family history!

2. Takako Masamune’s Memories and Stories

My father, Tetsuo Nozoe, would have been so pleased to see hisautograph books published in this forum. My family and I arevery grateful to Jeffrey Seeman, Eva Wille, Brian Johnson, andso many others for making all this possible and adding so muchto the publication’s beauty. In particular, we are so thankful to

Jeff for his kind and essential editing! It is quite a project and itwould not have been possible without their dedication.

As Jeff has so eloquently described in his introduction tothis series,[1] these autograph books were my father’s pride andjoy. My father also discussed these books in his autobiogra-phy[2] published in 1991, several years before his passing.Nothing gave him as much pleasure as to ask someone, at theend of some visit, whether business or pleasure, to write “a fewwords”. Of course, being Japanese, he loved mementos, but forhim, it was also about making a permanent human connection,about immortalizing a bond made from his heart. He wassuch a gregarious fellow. He loved meeting new people andre-connecting with old friends—it didn’t take long to becomeone of my father’s “old friends”! My father first got an inklingfor this idea for an autograph book when he received a

*Please address all correspondence to the editor, Jeffrey I. Seeman([email protected]).

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Chem. Rec. 2013, 13, 257–264 © 2013 The Chemical Society of Japan and Wiley-VCH, Weinheim www.tcr.wiley-vch.de 257

DOI: 10.1002/tcr.201300003

cherished autograph from Dr. Albert Einstein, on the occasionof Dr. Einstein’s first visit to Japan in 1922.

Typical scenes of my father greeting his friends and chem-istry colleagues are shown in Figures 3 and 4. Some of thechemists in Figures 3 and 4 signed my father’s autograph bookon that occasion, as shown in Figure 5.

As you can see from the entries captured in these auto-graph books, those “few words” ran the gamut from sophisti-cated insights into the chemical problems of the day, toheartfelt remembrances of a cherished visit. My father lovedreading and re-reading these entries. These books can now beread at http://www.tcr.wiley-vch.de/nozoe, open access for atleast three years.

In another essay accompanying the second of the 15 install-ments of the autograph books, three of my father’s students

and ultimately colleagues and friends, Toyonobu Asao, Shô Itô,and Ichiro Murata, have written a short biography of Tetsuo.[3]

These same men also kindly put together the Nozoe “chemistry”family tree—that cherished chemistry tradition, whereby

Fig. 1. Left to right: Kyoko, Tetsuo, Shigeo, Takako. Japan, 1955.

Fig. 2. (Left to right). Front row: Kyoko, Fujiko (Tetsuo’s sister-in-law),Tetsuo. Back row: Yuriko, Takako and Satoru (son-in-law), Shigeo, Yoko.Japan, 1956.

Fig. 3. My father welcoming Gilbert Stork and to Stork’s right, his daughterDiana, after the IUPAC Natural Products Symposium. Japan, April 1964. SeeFigure 5 for Stork’s entry in the autograph books on this occasion.

Fig. 4. My father welcoming Duilio Arigoni with Hans Muxfeldt in thebackground, after the IUPAC Natural Products Symposium. Japan, April1964. See Figure 5 for Arigoni’s and Muxfeldt’s entries in the autograph bookson this occasion.

258 www.tcr.wiley-vch.de Chem. Rec. 2013, 13, 257–264 © 2013 The Chemical Society of Japan and Wiley-VCH, Weinheim

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chemists trace their lineage to one esteemed scientist or another,via their schooling and training. This Nozoe Family Tree inChemistry will be published together with one of the subse-quent installments of the autograph books.[3] In fact, my father,in his autobiography,[2] included the Riko Majima Family Treein Chemistry (see pages 107–109 in this autobiography). Pro-fessor Majima was my father’s professor at Tohoku University inthe early 1920s. I want to show you (Figure 6) that there existsanother Nozoe chemistry family tree, this one not just of a“chemical” nature, but genealogical too!

Of course, Tetsuo has many more descendants than thoseshown in Figure 6. This figure mainly includes those who

followed in his chemistry footsteps, as well as “closely related”individuals. My mother was not a chemist, but of course, she wasa big part of my father’s life. She accompanied him on many ofhis journeys, especially after we children were grown. Mymother shared in my father’s enthusiasm for new sights andsounds. But it turns out that even my mother had a chemistryconnection. She was the niece of my father’s boss during hisearly years in Formosa. So, even she was connected to thischemistry “family tree”! My father’s first boss in Taipei wasKinzo Kafuku. For more details of my father and mother’smarriage, please see pages 17–18 in my father’s autobiography.[2]

Figure 7 is another photograph of some of the Nozoe family.My father was always very interested in the West. When I

was young, we listened to classical music almost every night inour home in Taipei. He would turn off the electric lights, lightjust one candle, and explain every movement of the music.Japan was already at war with the West, so no one was supposedto even listen to such music, but we did anyway. His interestswere above politics.

My father especially loved Beethoven and particularlyBeethoven’s Symphony 6. Even now, I can remember myfather’s voice, talking about the music and conveying his loveof the music. My father embraced the world community. Hislove and tolerance of all people has always been a model to mychildren and me.

In our dining room, we had a “Western” table. Many ofyou know that a Japanese style dining table is very low, and onekneels or squats at such a table. At the time, I felt ashamed athaving a “different” kind of table from all of my friends’ homes,

Fig. 5. Autographs and entries by A. I. Scott, Hans Muxfeldt, Gilbert Storkand Duilio Arigoni in the Nozoe Autograph Books, April 23, 1964, page 153.See photographs of Muxfeldt, Stork and Arigoni taken at the same meeting inFigures 3 and 4.

Fig. 6. The “Chemistry Family Tree” of Tetsuo Nozoe’s own family highlights those members who were educatedand, in most instances had careers, in either chemistry or chemical engineering.


M y F a t h e r , M y G r a n d f a t h e r

but again, my father’s love of the West was quite profound. I’mnot sure what his friends and colleagues of the time thought ofthis! Another family photograph is shown in Figure 8.

I have included several pages from my father’s autographbook where my children and I signed over the years(Figures 9–11).

One additional memory that I would like to share withyou was that my father was quite an avid gardener and madeextensive drawings and notes about his plants and plants that

Fig. 7. (Left to right). Front row: Tohoru Masamune (Takako’s son), AtsushiNozoe (Shigeo’s son), Kumiko (Yoko Ishikura’s daughter), Hiroko Masamune(Takako’s daughter). Back row: Tetsuo, Takako, Kyoko (holding Sumito,Yoko Ishikura’s son), Yoko, and Masako Nozoe (Shigeo’s wife). Japan, 1967.

Fig. 8. (Left to right). Front row: Yoko Ishikura, Tetsuo, Kumiko Ishikura(Yoko’s daughter), and Satoru Masamune (holding Sumito, Yoko Ishikura’sson). Back row: Koichiro Higashihara (Yuriko’s husband), Yuriko, Kyoko,Tohoru, Takako (behind Tohoru), Hiroko, and Shigeo. Japan, 1970.

Fig. 9. My children’s, Hiroko and Tohoru’s, and my entry in my father’sautograph book (pages 358–359). Summer 1969, Edmonton, Canada.

Fig. 10. My children’s, Hiroko and Tohoru’s, and my entry in my father’sautograph book (page 544). August 9, 1976, Edmonton, Canada.



he would observe on his travels. An example of one of hispostcards is illustrated in Figure 12.

My father lived a full and exciting life, and was always soeager for the next adventure. What I miss most is his sageadvice and his abiding enthusiasm. I hope you enjoy readingthese autograph entries as much as he enjoyed receiving them!

3. Hiroko Masamune’s Memories and Stories

My grandfather was a very special man, with an amazingenthusiasm for everything, truly everything! When I thinkback and realize that for most of my cognizant life, I knew himafter he was “retired”, it boggles my mind. I think he had moreenergy as a man who was 55 years older than me than I everhad! His long, healthy life (which covered two world wars andthe deprivations therein), I think, is a testament to positivethinking and constant exercise (he was famous for his walks).

He also was a kind and caring man who really looked outfor his family and cared about family traditions. He was soproud that I was following in his footsteps. In 1977, I hadrecently decided on a chemistry major at the University ofWisconsin—Madison. When I saw my grandfather at ISNA-3,I noted in his autograph book (see Figure 13) that I was thefirst female chemist of the grandchildren’s generation. Thephoto in Figure 14 was taken in San Francisco around the sametime.

Fig. 11. Tohoru and Hiroko’s entries in my father’s autograph book (page577). August 1977, San Francisco.

Fig. 12. A drawing made by my father of Canadian wild flowers in 1971.



When I first visited Japan as a young professional in 1988,newly employed at Pfizer, I was attending a conference inTokyo. At the end of the last dinner of the conference, ProfessorMasaji Ohno (also my uncle Tadashi Masamune’s student) putme in a cab that would take me to my grandparents’ apartment,where they and my mother, Takako, were waiting. Now, twothings you should know. First, Tokyo is a very large city and cabdrivers in one area don’t necessarily know the other areas. Andsecond, I can’t read Japanese. My mother’s cousin had kindlyprovided the cab driver a map to a grocery store near mygrandparents’ apartment. After a 30-minute cab ride, the cabdriver pulled up in front of the grocery store. This grocery storewas part of a chain of grocery stores. It didn’t really look like theright area to me, but unfortunately, I couldn’t read the map,which was only written in Japanese! So, I got out of the cab,with a little trepidation, but I didn’t know what else to do. I wasin a rather dark area, with no signs of life (fortunately, this isTokyo, which is quite safe), but since it was about 11:00 p.m.,none of the businesses were open. I walked around a bit,realizing that it wouldn’t do any good to call, since I couldn’tread the street signs to tell anyone where I was anyway. In themeantime, my grandparents and mom were anxiously going inand out of the apartment, down to the street, trying to see me.They were also calling Professor Ohno and his family, but of

course, they didn’t know anything about my whereabouts,either. I finally found a bowling alley, and asked the attendantto call this number and tell them where I am. It was quite ahilarious conversation, since my grandfather at this time was alittle deaf, and—I think—could not quite figure out what theyoung man at the bowling alley was trying to tell him! However,all was quickly resolved and my grandparents came to get me.The next day, my grandfather drew me a VERY detailed map asto the location of their apartment, which was written in BOTHJapanese and English. That map stood me in good stead the restof my trip! Sadly, I didn’t keep the map.

One of my last memories of my grandfather was at his ageof 94, eagerly showing me a recent manuscript of an upcomingarticle in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (seeFigure 15). Perhaps he was one of the oldest, active authors topublish a paper in JACS! He was so proud to share this workwith me, his granddaughter, also an organic chemist.

My grandfather always referred to his office as a “rabbithutch”, because it was filled floor to ceiling with journals,articles, etc. I think of this as an amazing testament to hislifelong enthusiasm for chemistry and life, in general. Betweenhim and my father, Satoru Masamune, it was no wonder thatI pursued a career in chemistry. I wanted what they had—apassion for science, a passion to be the best, and a love of life!

4. Tohoru Masamune’s Memories and Stories

I feel so blessed to have had a grandfather who had suchuncanny amounts of positive energy and zeal for life. He would

Fig. 13. My entry in my grandfather’s autograph books (page 570), August27, 1977.

Fig. 14. The Masamune’s with their father and grandfather. (Left to right)Hiroko, a friend partially hidden in the background, Tohoru, Takako, Tetsuo,Kyoko, and Satoru. San Francisco, 1977.

Fig. 15. One of Tetsuo Nozoe’s last publications, submitted before hispassing in 1996. From the Journal of the American Chemical Society (referencecited at the top of the figure).



always describe to me, with infectious enthusiasm, the experi-ences, events and people in his life. In retrospect, all thesepeople, many of them chemists, seemed to me like fascinatingcharacters in a great story.

I also have memories of my grandfather’s tremendouskindness and patience. Near his country home on Izu Penin-sula, there was a suspension bridge stretched high across themouth of this bay, which was enveloped by these beautifuldramatic cliffs. Ocean waves always crash into the rocks below.When I was a young child, he was taking me on one of hisfamous hikes and then, we encountered this bridge. I was tooafraid to cross. After several tries, he let the rest of our group goahead, and he happily took me by the hand and walked withme as we leisurely took the long way (45 minutes longer)around the perimeter of the bay.

(On a humorous side note, I later returned to Izu as a youngadult. He wanted to take me back to this same bridge. Of course,I was willing to cross this time, but I have to admit that it was stillquite scary for me. I was doing fine as we crossed the bridge,hiding my uneasiness, and then he stopped midway to point outa great view of the cliffs. He was so happy about sharing this viewthat I didn’t have the heart to tell him to keep moving!)

In 1976, I wrote an entry (Figure 16) into my grand-father’s autograph book the night before a college chemistryexam. The “Bill” to whom I am referring is Prof. WilliamRastetter. He was my freshman chemistry professor at MIT(along with Prof. George Whitesides and Prof. Fred Green).Fortunately, I had some world-class tutors in my family!

Another wonderful memory comes from 1992. I wasresiding in San Francisco. My mother called me to tell me thatGrandpa was attending the ISNA-7 conference in Victoria,British Columbia, and that I should give him a call while hewas on this continent. At this time, the word had just officiallygotten out to my extended family that I was moving to Hol-lywood and perhaps unwisely switching to an acting career(despite my chemical engineering degree from MIT). I had notyet spoken about this with any of my family from Japan, so Iwas understandably nervous about the potential reaction fromthis grand patriarch of our chemistry family. It had been quitesome time since I talked to him, not to mention he was in hisearly 90s at this point.

Unsure of how the conversation would go, I called him . . .Of course, he answered with the spirit of an exuberant

youth. He immediately brought up my situation and assuredme with all sincerity, “That is SO great!!! You are truly follow-ing your own path!!” Indeed, at a time when I was full of doubt,he continued to inspire me to embrace life as an excitingadventure. I believe this was my last conversation with him. Ican’t describe how joyful his tone was during this phone call. Itmeant the world to me.

For the rest of the phone call, he proceeded to enthusias-tically describe in colorful detail all the excitement that was

happening at that ISNA-7 conference. I fondly remember himsaying, “Well, there seems to be a bit of Bucky-madness goingon here!!” referring to all the discussion which apparently wasrevolving around buckminsterfullerenes at that time.

I went on to enjoy my current success as a working actor,and I can honestly say I have found a life and career whichbrings me much happiness, reward and fulfillment. Writingthis piece, it strikes me how much my Grandpa influenced myoutlook, which led me to some of the really good decisions Imade in my life. His unbridled love of life and his willingnessto share it with all of us was truly a gift.

5. Conclusion by Takako Masamune

On behalf of the Nozoe family, we want again to thank Jeff,Eva, Brian, and the many others for putting this publicationtogether. And I hope you, the readers, have enjoyed this little

Fig. 16. Tohoro Masamune’s entry on May 6, 1979 in the Nozoe AutographBook (page 674).



trip down memory lane. We have enjoyed sharing our memo-ries and some of our pictures and autograph entries with you.You can see that my father was beloved by his family. Eventoday, almost 20 years after his death, he is sorely missed. Yet,his enthusiasm and generosity is so well-remembered that itseems like he’s just around the corner, eager to stop by and getyour autograph into his book.

Acknowledgements

We also thank Professor Koji Nakanishi for the photographsthat appear in Figures 3 and 4.

REFERENCES

[1] J. I. Seeman, Chem. Rec. 2012, 12, 517–531.[2] T. Nozoe, “Seventy Years in Organic Chemistry” in Profiles,

Pathways and Dreams (Ed.: J. I. Seeman), American ChemicalSociety, Washington, D.C., 1991.

[3] I. Murata, S. Itô, T. Asao, Chem. Rec. 2012, 12, 599–607.



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My Father, My Grandfather