27) Holonyak, Stationed at Isogo Base

 
Photo A: Letter of introduction from Bardeen to Michio Hatoyama for Holonyak


Photo B: Kikuchi and Holonyak discussing silicon transistors

We can often observe some "peculiar" incidents distinctive of the postwar days in the cource of Japanese semiconductor R&D, since Japan started developing semiconductor right after the World War Ⅱ. The following story was exactly one of the "peculiar" incidents. Nick Holonyak, who successfully developed light emitting diode(LED) first in the world at Research Center of General Electric Company in 1962, was stationed at Isogo Base.
Makoto Kikuchi at Electrotechnical Laboratory received a surprise visit from Holonyak and he gave the following evidence.
Holonyak was the first student of Bardeen, one of three inventors of transistor, at the University of Illinois. He called on me with a letter of introduction from Bardeen to my boss, Michio Hatoyama (Photo A), and said that he was stationed as one of American troops in Japan to undergo military service after leaving Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL). Since then, he showed up at the laboratory from time to time on Saturdays to discuss on transistors with me. Holonyak introduced these meetings to an American research document with Photo B dated November 12, 1956, which said, "Kikuchi and I are discussing silicon transistors." You probably might think that he disclosed all information he had, but that was not the case. Later on, he repeatedly confessed, "To tell the truth I couldn’t be quite candid even with a very good friend of mine like you. At that time a strict gag was placed about a mesa transistor which the group of John Moll at BTL had developed."
(By courtesy of Kikuchi)

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