flâneur

Founders Notes: Made In Japan

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Made in Japan Akio Morita Forty years ago, a small group gathered in a burned-out department store building in war-devastated downtown Tokyo. Their purpose was to found a new company, their optimistic goal was to develop the technologies that would help rebuild Japan's economy. In this early gathering was a young engineer, Akio Morita, then twenty-five years old. Today, that company is one of the most powerful and respected multinational corporations in the world-Sony-and Akio Morita is its outspoken chairman. I was having lunch with my navy colleagues when the incredible news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima arrived, The information was sketchy-we were not even told what kind of bomb had been dropped-but as a technical officer just out of college with a degree in physics, I understood what the bomb was and what it meant to Japan, and to me. The future had never been more uncertain-Japan had never lost a war-and only a young man could be optimistic. Yet I had confidence in myself and in my future even then. I had seen the terrible results of conventional firebombing. I was in Tokyo when the incendiary bombs whipped up a fire storm that killed one hundred thousand people in just a

Made in Japan Akio Morita Forty years ago, a small group gathered in a burned-out department store building in war-devastated downtown Tokyo. Their purpose was to found a new company, their optimistic goal was to develop the technologies that would help rebuild Japan's economy. In this early gathering was a young engineer, Akio Morita, then twenty-five years old. Today, that company is one of the most powerful and respected multinational corporations in the world-Sony-and Akio Morita is its outspoken chairman. I was having lunch with my navy colleagues when the incredible news of the…

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