There now have been five winterovers from Japan or otherwise with Japanese heritage--including the first woman in 2023:
Year Name Position/Affiliation 1959 Fred Mayeda meteorology US Weather Bureau 1960 Henry Morozumi aurora Arctic Inst. of N.America/USAF 1977 Tadashi Yogi gravity researcher UCLA 2020 Yuya Makino grantee IceCube 2023 Michelle Endo retail coordinator ASC-Amentum Japan in Antarctica? Of course! They conducted a significant expedition in 1910-12, led by Nobu Shirase, which of course was mostly overshadowed in Western culture by what Scott and Amundsen were doing. But Shirase's expedition did briefly make contact with officers from Amundsen's vessel Fram (Wikipedia reference). The third Japanese winterover was with me in 1977--Tadashi Yogi. Here he is during our 1976-77 summer with three Japanese researchers who were part of the first successful meteorite recovery project in Victoria Land. |