Bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928), who became a star researcher with the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York, was a great man. He was so great that he is now the face on the new 1,000 yen bill issued Nov. 1.
Biographical books on great people for Japanese kids never fail to include Noguchi, who notably isolated the syphilis bacterium and was three times nominated for a Nobel Prize. As far as these books are concerned, the scientist — who died in the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) while doing research on yellow fever — is comparable with Albert Schweizer, Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale and even with Christ himself.
But this diminutive man from Inawashiro in Fukushima Prefecture, who stood only 153 cm tall, was great in other respects too — in particular, in his great propensity to spend . . . and his inability to save.
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