Wheeler and the two Japanese avatars

The 1950's were a period of important changes in concepts and attitudes on spacetime physics, culminating in the so-called Revival (Renaissance) of General Relativity. This was the time when J. A. Wheeler burst on the scene, seemingly without previous credits in the field, but with a multitude of new and fresh research ideas. These involved a radical change of thinking, from particles to fields as the fundamental building blocks of nature. There are no publications documenting this transition, when he was of two minds between particles and fields, except one little-known lecture he gave in connection with the 1953 International Conference of Theoretical Physics in Tokyo, a lecture that was published only in Japanese translation[1]. How could Wheeler present the two contrasting views to an audience accustomed to hear unique answers rather than Wheelerian speculation? He mentioned great scientists like Mach and Einstein, but most importantly he called upon two heroes of Japanese history whom he could question and from whom he could learn. We will see how they responded to the challenge, and also comment on the similarly challenging problems encountered in translating Wheeler's paper back into English.

[1] J. Wheeler, Proceedings of the Physical Society of Japan 9, 36 (1954).