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"Can this be put to practical use?" "No, I don't think a thing like
this will ever do."
Masaru Ibuka and Kazuo Iwama were having a lively
discussion about an article in an American magazine. The article reported on
the invention of the transistor at Bell Laboratories in the United States. A
short explanation was given along with a picture of a contact-point
transistor. "By setting a couple of tungsten needles in a germanium
crystal," the explanation began.
"It has no future," Ibuka concluded as he read through the article,
remembering the crystal detector which he had initially used in his ham
radio. The crystal detector would detect radio waves with a metal needle set
in a galenic zinc crystal. The radio could be heard by connecting a receiver
to this device. It resembled the transistor, but could hardly be called a
sophisticated machine. The needle would be easily displaced if someone
nearby sneezed or moved even slightly, and thus would have to be reset each
time it was displaced. This required delicate and troublesome tuning. Based
on his experience, Ibuka assumed that the transistor would have little use.
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 | | Masaru Ibuka before leaving Japan on his first trip to the United
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In March 1952, Ibuka decided to visit the United States for a
three-month inspection tour. At that time, tape recorder sales in Japan were
limited to the educational market, centering around schools. Ibuka keenly
wanted to widen this market -- he hoped to see for himself how American
consumers used tape recorders. And if possible, he wanted to observe how
tape recorders were manufactured by American companies on their assembly
lines.
As Ibuka boarded the Northwest DC-6 jetliner at Haneda Airport after a
send-off by his family and colleagues, he felt a little bit nervous. This
was his first trip abroad and he could not communicate well in English.
The Northwest passengers were asked to disembark in the middle of the
night. Ibuka, who had assumed that the plane would fly to Anchorage nonstop,
felt ill at ease and wondered, "Where am I?" Looking about and listening
to the stopover announcement carefully, he learned that the plane had landed
on Semichi, a western island in the Aleutian Islands. "But this stopover is
not mentioned in the flight schedule," Ibuka thought uneasily to himself.
Much to his relief, however, the plane was just refueling. Dinner was
served, and the plane departed to reach Anchorage safely the next morning.
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But Ibuka received a shock of a different kind in Anchorage as he experienced
racial discrimination at immigration, where different races received
different treatment. Witnessing this negative aspect of American society, he
felt disturbed.
Ibuka then flew from Anchorage to Seattle, where he was to change planes
to proceed to New York. In Seattle he learned that there would be
no plane to New York for three or four days. Hotel and sightseeing expenses during this
unexpected stay were borne by the airline company. Taking advantage of this
opportunity, Ibuka decided to meet a friend who lived in Tacoma, a suburb of
Seattle. He waited and waited, but this friend did not show up. "Well, he
promised to be here and show me around. I wonder what happened..." He went
back to his hotel room, still puzzled. Ibuka found out later about daylight
savings time in the U.S. But it was too late, and Ibuka missed the chance
altogether to see this friend.
Despite such unfortunate events Ibuka arrived in New York in one piece.
"The United States is really fantastic. Buildings are brightly lit until
late at night. The streets are jammed with automobiles. This is a stunning
country!" Everything Ibuka saw and heard astonished him. Being an
automobile enthusiast, Ibuka heaved a deep sigh as he gazed at an array of
big American cars in the front of a used car showroom. But Ibuka found them
to be too expensive. He had to be extremely careful with his money, even for
taxis, and could spend only $10 to 20 a day due to strict Japanese
government regulations that limited the amount of foreign currency taken out
of Japan.
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