Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/03/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 11:27 AM 3/7/97 -0800, John wrote: > AS an aside a bit of interesting trivia about Japan and it's >optical industry. During Hitler's regime, a group of German Jewish >optical scientist's Applied to a number of different governments, thay >wanted someplace where they could go as a group and continue working. >They were rejected by most of the world powers, but japan gave them a >home, and provided them with the rescoures they needed to work as a >group. IMO this is one of the reasons that Japan today dominates the >world optical industry. This is emphatically NOT true. There were a number of noted German optical scientists of the Jewish faith, and almost all of these were protected by their employers -- including, incidentally, the designer of the original Contax, who was shipped by Zeiss to France and then assisted by them in escaping to Palestine when France fell in 1940. But none of these guys ended up in Japan. The Wartime Japanese optical industry was rather so-so. The time of prominence came after the War, when the MacArthur occupation regime would not allow Zeiss and Leitz to sue Nikon and Canon to protect their patent rights; MacArthur felt, strongly, that it was in the US national interests to protect the growth of the Japanese optical industry, though the US did not agree and for several years would not permit the sale of Japanese cameras in the 24mm by 36mm format to be sold in the US, hence the use of the 24mm by 32mm format, and the like, by some early Postwar Japanese companies. By the time the US had restored sovereignity to the Japanese and the Allies to Germany, the damage had been done, and Nikon and Canon had built from their thieveries the reputation they continue to enjoy today. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!