An adventure in applied science - IRRI books - International Rice ...

62 History of the International Rice Research InstituteThe first physiologist to be interviewed was Terrence Senewiratne, of SriLanka, whom Wortman and I had met at the University of Sri Lanka inPeradeniya where he was a member of the faculty. Senewiratne was invited tovisit the Philippines in May 1961 and was offered the position of head of theDepartment of Plant Physiology. Like Ponnamperuma, he had to work for thegovernment for as many years as he had been absent getting his Ph D in theU.S., and he still had 2 years to go before his debt would be paid off. However,he agreed to approach his government to see whether it would waive therequirement and let him join an international center that would have an impacton Sri Lanka’s rice production. Several weeks later, we received a letter fromSenewiratne stating that he would be unable to join IRRI’s staff.Some years afterward, when Senewiratne was an officer of the AsianDevelopment Bank in Manila, he told me that the real reason he had to turndown IRRI’s offer was that because he was an only son, his father had ruledthat he must remain in Sri Lanka for as long as the parent lived. Thus did Asianfilial ties influence the composition of IRRI’s staff.IRRI administrators had become well acquainted with Yoshiaki Ishizuka, aprominent professor of soil science at the University of Hokkaido in Sapporo,Japan. He recommended that IRRI consider (for the post of plant physiologist)a faculty colleague who had been one of his graduate students, Akira Tanaka.On further inquiry, Tanaka was strongly recommended also by Kihara of theIRRI Board of Trustees and by Bradfield, then still at Cornell.Tanaka was invited to the Philippines in December 1961 and made a mostpositive impression on the staff. Offered the post of heading the physiologyprogram, he accepted, arranging to arrive with his family by April 1962.Tanaka developed a first-class physiology program and brought to IRRI awealth of Japanese knowledge and expertise, which were great advantages tothe new institution.Unfortunately, in those years, the Japanese Government placed a limitationon the length of time a scientist could stay abroad. Tanaka had to return toJapan in 1966 unless he was prepared to sever all connections with officialinstitutions there. It was a great deal to ask of any Japanese scientist torelinquish his hard-won standing in an academic environment like Japan’swhere coveted positions were not readily relinquished to younger aspirantsthrough the retirement of senior incumbents.Tanaka was replaced by Shouichi Yoshida, another former student ofIshizuka’s. In 1965, Yoshida was a scientist at the National Institute of AgriculturalSciences in Tokyo where he was working almost exclusively on silicon inrice. I interviewed him in Tokyo in September 1965 and found that hewelcomed the idea of conducting research in a broader field than was possibleat his post in Japan. He was invited to visit IRRI in January 1966. He was hiredand, with his family, arrived at IRRI in April 1966 just as Tanaka was about toleave. Not long after Yoshida joined IRRI, the government of Japan relaxed itsregulation and allowed such scientists to remain abroad indefinitely withoutpenalty.