The Little Schemes of Akihiro Suehiro

"Whether we're willing to stake our National Fortune on it—let's begin the discussion!"

At that very moment.

When they heard Hideki Yukawa say this,

the entire conference room fell silent once more, like a graveyard. Not a sound could be heard.

Even the attendees who had been twirling their pens or tugging at their hair stopped what they were doing, staring in astonishment at the man onstage—the foremost physicist in Japan.

Quite a few scholars were slow to catch on. Or, to put it another way, they weren't especially perceptive. Only now did they understand why Hideki Yukawa had called this meeting.

So

Hideki Yukawa had actually summoned them to hold a vote like this!

But on closer thought, the idea seemed fairly reasonable.

After all, the people gathered here included 90 percent of Japan's top theoretical physicists. The remaining 10 percent had been unable to make it in time for various reasons.

For example, Yuichi Matsuo, who ranked among Japan's top ten physicists, was currently in Belgium on an academic exchange visit. The visit involved a political assignment, so he couldn't return home at short notice like Yoichiro Nambu had.

Then there was the 93-year-old Teruyoshi Fukui, who had succumbed to dementia and could keel over and kick the bucket at any moment.

Some other scholars were at crucial stages in their research, so it was entirely reasonable and acceptable that a few top figures hadn't attended.

But even after excluding those people,

the remaining 90 percent of the scholars present still had the qualifications to vote—or, more accurately, to decide whether to stake the country's fortunes on this.

It was also easy to see from the fact that Akihiro Suehiro of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry was here that Japan's leadership was divided over the matter.