Akagi Masao

Akagi Masao

Monument in Toyooka

Akagi Masao ( Japanese 赤木 正雄 ; born March 24, 1887 in Toyooka , Hyōgo Prefecture ; died September 24, 1972 ) was a Japanese engineer and erosion specialist.

Live and act

Akagi Masao came from an old family of large farmers. Even when he was still at school, Nitobe Inazō's investigations inspired him to deal with the occurrence of erosion. In 1914 he graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry and began working for the Ministry of the Interior.

After receiving further training in Australia in 1923, he introduced advanced measures to control erosion. This happened in 1931 in the Tateyama area, then on the Rokkō (Kobe). In 1935 he received his doctorate with a thesis on erosion. In 1936 he founded the "National Society for Flood and Erosion Protection" (全国 治水 砂防 協会, Zenkoku chisui sabō kyōkai).

After the Pacific War ended, Akagi went into politics. He became a member of the Reichstag and was Deputy Parliamentary Minister in the Ministry of Construction during the 3rd Yoshida Cabinet .

In 1971 Akagi was honored as a person of special cultural merit . In the same year he received the Order of Culture .

In 2013 Akagi's birthplace in Toyooka opened as a museum.

Remarks

1. ↑ In Japan called "Kōnō" (豪 農).
2. ↑ The Tateyama (立 山) is a mountain range in the Japanese Alps.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Akagi Masao . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 25.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Akagi is the family name, Masao the first name.