3. The Existence of Germanium in Coal

    My discovery of the biochemical significance of germanium occurred as follows. Towards the end of 1945 I was granted a permit to establish the Coal Research Center Foundation.

My young researchers and I were motivated by the belief that the rebuilding of Japan's industries after the war depended on coal. Since we were working in the public interest naturally we felt that we should operate as a non-profit foundation. This research center provided the womb that gave birth to my organic germanium. Conditions at the time were very confused, and even if there had been money there could be no research. Not only then but over many years there were periods of great hardship and it was only through great self  sacrifice on the part of myself, my family and loyal colleagues that the organic germanium  compound came into existence.

    I had gained the knowledge that coal contains germanium from Russian literature on the subject. Furthermore, when I was called to serve as an interpreter in the Scientific Resources Bureau set up by the American occupation forces I chanced to hear an American officer tell how there was a report on the rare element germanium in a document confiscated in Germany (the PB report) and how it declared this element would rule the future.  There is still some doubt as to whether this was contained in the P B report, but it did serve to create an interest in the subject. An opportunity had opened up, and the fact that such an interest developed leads one to wonder whether or not it was after all an inevitability rather than mere chance.

Or, may not the fact that this led to an unusual interest in the element germanium be the action of a dimension far above the ordinary?.

    At once, I had the staff investigate the amount of germanium to be found in coal. The microanalysis of a rare element  demands superior knowledge and precision instruments. The staff and I worked unsparingly for nearly a year to establish a quantitative analysis of germanium. As we did not have funds to acquire the necessary instruments, we utilized those of other research centers. 

Right after the war, about the only amusement was the movies and at that time the film "Madam Curie" was being shown, and I took the time to see it. Even today I cannot forget the excitement I felt at the end of that film. It was the impressive story of how Madam Curie with a crude store room for a laboratory, and with kettles, buckets, tubs, and the like, had succeeded in separating radium from pitchblende, and with the radium she had extracted, produced a strange light on a fluorescent screen. The film was pure inspiration.  My staff also saw it and I pointed out to them that research involved more than material things; it demands much in the spiritual realm.

    Coal is formed from the remains of ancient vegetation carbonized in an air-tight state as a result of complete immersion in sea water when swamp lands subsided millions of years ago.

In coal petrography, a black lump of coal is classified and measured in three sections for the purposes of quantitative analyses : 

( I ) Vitrit. the basically woody tissue. 

(2)  Clarit: a hardened mixture of bark,  leaves and twigs and

(3)  Durit: a hardened mass of seeds and spores.

    It became clear that germanium was to be found in Japanese coal, about 5 to 10 parts per million (ppm). I learned that germanium is especially abundant in the vitrit or woody section. It occurs in comparatively small quantities in the older coals of the Coal Age mainly the European and American varieties, of which the original plants were of the fern family while coals of the younger Tertiary Period, such as those formed principally of the Sequois-dendron giganteum (a tree of the redwood family) commonly found in Japan and East Asia, contain a considerable amount of germanium.

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