IN wake of the celebration of Nobel Laureate week in Saint Lucia, we at the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) St. Lucia Office, take this opportunity to reflect on the great accomplishments of the Japanese society with the help of our own sons and daughters.
Since the year 1949, there have been 27 Japanese winners of the Nobel Prize; with the first awardee in the person of Prof.
Hideki Yukawa in the field of Physics during the year 1949 and the most recent awardee in the person of Prof. Tasuku Honjo in the field of Physiology or Medicine in the year 2018. Of all Japanese winners, eleven have been physicists, seven chemists, three for literature, six for physiology or medicine and one for efforts towards peace.
We reflect on the life and work of the dearly departed Sir Derek Walcott who drove Saint Lucia into the international literature society after attaining the Nobel Prize for Literature in the year 1992; and the great economist Sir Arthur Lewis who attained his award in 1979, and are forced to reminisce on the works of our very own who likewise attained such high an acknowledgement.
May the legacy of those who have paved the way for us as an international community be the driving force that propels our society to a socio-economic development and the achieving of a better Saint Lucia and of course Japan. (JICA)