Tetsu Tamura (also known as "S. Tetsu Tamura"; birth name: Satoru Tamura); "S(atoru)" from the Library of Congress Old Catalog October 18, 1876August 19, 1909) was a Japanese meteorologist and oceanographer, who utilized higher mathematics, active in the United States (U.S. National Weather Service) before Syukuro Manabe (2021 Nobel Prize in Physics) and Japan during the Meiji era. Tamura helped Cleveland Abbe (head of the NWS) as his assistant specialized in physico-mathematical theory for three years (19031906) until his returning to Japan and frequently published articles to Science magazine, Weekly Weather Review, etc. as listed below. He was also a pedagogist of the comparative educational system. He taught at the Naval War College, Tokyo Higher Normal School (now University of Tsukuba), and Waseda University.
Early life On October 18, 1876 (Meiji 9), Tamura was born in Yonezawa, Yamagata, Japan. He was the third son of Yoshimasa Tamura, a samurai of the Yonezawa Domain (Uesugi clan).舟橋雄草：「田村哲君小傳」『青山学院校友会会報』1910年3月7日号、p.4–5. / A Short Biography of Mr. Tamura. In his autobiography, Tamura writes that his father survived the fierce battle of Koguriyama in Hokuetsu (Northern Niigata) during the Boshin War (1868–1869), and that the family was "as poor as a church mouse."田村哲：『外遊九年』東京：目黒書店、1908年（明治41年11月発行）/ Nine Years Abroad: An Autobiography. In July 1892 (Meiji 25), he was graduated from the Yonezawa Chugakko (now Yamagata Prefectural Yonezawa Kojokan High School), a five-year secondary school run by the Uesugi clan, and left home on March 15 of the following spring to enter the Aoyama Gakuin College (now Aoyama Gakuin University). He worked as a schoolboy and janitor while studying at Aoyama Gakuin College. When he studied higher mathematics by himself in this college, Tamura found some mistakes in a book of "determinants"Laenas Gifford Weld: A Short Course in the Theory of Determinants. New York and London: Macmillan, 1893. and communicated with the author. The author's response with appreciation would later encourage him to study abroad.
The event that Seitaro Goto (1867–1935), who was then a lecturer in zoology at Aoyama Gakuin, went to the United States with a scholarship from Johns Hopkins University was the motivation and hope for Tamura's subsequent trip to the United States. Tamura would, in fact, later obtain at least three different scholarships from U.S. universities自筆『学業履歴書』（明治40年11月16日付け、早稲田大学宛）/ Résumé by his own hand in Japanese submitted to Waseda University (dated on November 16, 1907). He was graduated from Aoyama Gakuin College in March 1896 (Meiji 29), as listed in Aoyama Gakuin University Alumni Record (Aoyama Gakuin Resource Center).渡部正孝：「青山出身気象学者、田村哲のこと」『青山学報』157号（1992年3月）p.56－57. ISSN 0915-6291 / Masataka Watanabe: "On Tetsu Tamura, a meteorologist from the Aoyama Gakuin." Aoyama Gakuho 157(March 1992): 56－57. ISSN 0915-6291.
The next year, in April 1897 (Meiji 30), he taught mathematics and English at Aichi Prefectural Normal School in Nagoya, introduced by Nobuta Kishimoto (1866–1928) and Ryokichi Yatabe (1851–1899), and the following year 1898 (Meiji 31), in April, he was ready to travel to the United States. His destination was Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa, where he received his first scholarship. The ship was the City of Peking from Yokohama to San Francisco via Honolulu.
Study and research in the U.S.A. For the following educational backgrounds and training timelines, while referring to his autographed résumé and his autobiography, "Nine Years Abroad," the inconsistencies and inaccuracies between these two sources are corrected and supplemented by using the records of the related universities in the United States. Many of the contradictions are time-to-day inconsistencies that can be misleading, but the biggest contradiction is the fact that he was enrolled at Simpson College, which appears neither in his résumé nor in his autobiography. Although Funabashi's memorial with a short biography is the only Japanese material mentioned, various materials in the United States below prove Tamura's enrollment at Simpson College.
Elsewhere, the autobiography mentions that he met Kiyoshi Kawakami (1873–1949), an old friend in their hometown Yamagata and also an alumnus of Aoyama Gakuin, at the University of Iowa in 1900, but Kawakami was in Japan until the formation of the Social Democratic Party in May 1901. Thus, Tamura was confused in describing some of the events between 1900 and 1901 (Meiji 33 and Meiji 34).
Iowa Simpson College (Indianola) Tamura left Yokohama in early April 1898 (Meiji 31) and arrived in San Francisco on the ship City of Peking, which was just before being drafted into naval service for the Spanish-American War that broke out in April, 1898. He then traveled by land via Portland, Oregon to his final destination, Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. This college was and still is the same Methodist school as Aoyama Gakuin. /Simpson College/Mission/ Immediately after arriving, there were no classes due to summer vacation, and during this time, with the help of the local church, he anonymously wrote and published an English novel entitled Kwaiku based on his own religious history. The novel's "Preface" mentioned that Emma Kate Corkhill, a professor of English literature at Simpson College, helped him for English composition.A Young Japanese Convert [alias S. Tetsu Tamura]: Kwaiku (Recollections of the Past). Oelwein, Iowa: Press of the Oelwein Journal, 1898 (24 pages) /housed in Simpson College/ According to the academic transcript of Professor J.L. Tilton of the Science Department at Simpson University, with a letter of recommendation to G. Stanley Hall, President of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, Tamura's formal coursework began in the fall quarter of 1898.For "S. Tetsu Tamura": Recommendation letter from J.L. Tilton (Simpson College) to G. Stanley Clark (Clark University) on June 4, 1900. /housed in Clark University He completed the winter, spring, and fall quarters of 1899 and the winter quarter of 1900. But in the middle of the spring quarter, his credits were transferred from Simpson College to State University of Iowa (now University of Iowa) in Iowa City, Iowa, where he received his B.S. (Bachelor of Science) degree in 1990.
State University of Iowa (Iowa City), now the University of Iowa The "State University of Iowa" that Tamura wrote about in his résumé and elsewhere is now the "University of Iowa" in Iowa City, not the "Iowa State University" in Ames. Not to be confused. While he spent five quarters at Simpson College, Tamura did not graduate from it,The Zenith 1900 (Simpson College Year Book, 1900) and received his bachelor's degree (B.S.) from State University of Iowa. Tamura first entered Simpson College with the support of the same Methodist Church as Aoyama Gakuin, being admitted as a third-year student (junior) in the fall quarter of 1898, taking into account his graduation from Aoyama Gakuin and his experience as an instructor at the Normal School of Aichi Prefecture (now Aichi University of Education). It was revealed in Tilton's letter of recommendation to G. Stanley Hall, written on the Simpson College letterhead paper mentioned above.
East Coast and New England Columbia University and Clark University Tamura stayed at State University of Iowa in Iowa City until 1901 (Meiji 34) and became an M.A. (Master of Arts in mathematics) in June. The title of his master's thesis is Applications of Harmonic Analysis to the Study of Vibrating Strings and Membranes (1901)岡田武松の追悼文「ドクトル田村哲氏逝」より（『気象集誌』1909年、28(8): 302－303. ISSN 0022-135X. /"Obituary for Dr. Tamura" by Takematsu Okada in Kisho Shushi (1909) 28(8): 302–303. ISSN 0022-135X. After this, he headed east for the first time to enroll in Columbia University Graduate School in New York City. By the way, prior to this, as a result of sending a letter of recommendation to Clark University, Tamura was actually accepted. However, partially because Arthur Gordon Webster, who was scheduled advisor at Clark University, was going to be out of town for a year, and partially because State University of Iowa also offered him a scholarship, he stayed at the graduate school in Iowa for a year, as revealed in the letter of explanation that Tilton and Tamura themselves sent to Clark University.For "S. Tetsu Tamura": From J.L. Tilton to G. Stanley Hall on September 8, 1900. /housed in Clark UniversityFrom S. Tetsu Tamura to G. Stanley Hall on September 21, 1900. /housed in Clark University Staying in Iowa for a year did not cancel Clark University's scholarships. From 1901 (Meiji 34) to the summer of 1902 (Meiji 35), he first studied in the doctoral program at Columbia University under Robert Simpson Woodward, who was then the Dean of the Faculty of Science. Tamura then left New York in the fall, to continue his research at Clark University in New England, as a fellow paid by the promised scholarship. In the summer of 1903 (Meiji 36), he returned to Columbia University.
Tamura's autographed résumé says he got a Ph.D. degree this year, but Tamura's own autobiography is more correct. It was two years later in 1905.Tamura, S. Tetsu. Columbia University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1905. #0229379. Although the dissertation for the degree of Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy in pure science) was submitted to Columbia University, the title page clearly states that he was a fellow of both universities, Columbia and Clark. The dissertation was based on a series of meteorological studies in Washington, D.C., as shown in the next section, and the title is Mathematical Theory of the Nocturnal Cooling of the Atmosphere, Parts I and II, which main thesis was published in the April 1905 issue of the Monthly Weather Review (p. 138-147), and was reprinted in a 31-page booklet with a new title page to submit as the dissertation. /Library of Congress/Doctoral Dissertation.
Washington, D.C. (U.S. Weather Bureau) In September 1903 (Meiji 36), Tamura became an engineer (specialist) at the U.S. Weather Bureau, now the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) in Silver Spring, Maryland, which was then located in Washington, D.C., with the recommendation of Woodward, Tamura's mentor at Columbia University. It was fortunate that Cleveland Abbe, also a professor at Columbia University, was looking for his assistant or successor who were good at mathematics. Abbe was already 64 years old at the time, and was a leading meteorologist, whom Isaac Asimov later called "the father of the National Weather Service." Abbe had a reputation for being kind and caring for everyone, and in fact, he worked as a matchmaker for Tamura's marriage on Saturday, November 25, 1905 (Meiji 38).『青山女学院校友会会報』1910年「田村くら子」 /Aoyama Girls Alumni News 1910 on Kurako Tamura. In his autobiography, Tamura quotes the words of one of Abbe's alumni, who recalled his unchanging personality, as follows: "Everybody liked Abbe thirty years ago, as everybody likes him now." The series of researches under Abbe were mainly published in the Weather Review (now Monthly Weather Review ISSN 0027-0644) published by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). As mentioned above, with the main paper requesting a degree, they became supporting papers for his dissertation. Some of them are shown in the "Major works" section below.
Washington, D.C. (Carnegie Institution and Academia Socializing)