Tadamigawa Dam Site Survey

One day, after the war, one of his old friends, Tashiro Shiraishi, sent him a letter asking him if he could come to Japan to survey a dam due to the need of Japanese hydro-electric generation. In 1947, directly after this request to go to Japan, he sounded out Five-star General Douglas MacArthur in a letter. The reply from MacArthur evaluated Raymond’s architectural work in Japan as historical and he was soon granted permission to travel to Japan.
(The Architecture of Antonin Raymond, Hiroshi Misawa, Kajima Institute Publishing)

Shiraishi and I met Shigeru Yoshida in his private rooms on a number of occasions to investigate measures and the significance of this basic plan.
Raymond came to Tokyo at the end of October, 1949 with Eric Flores. The first thing he did was to visit General MacArthur, explained that he was going to Okutadami and asked for his opinion on its state, the possibility of building a dam and the creation of a scientific report based on Flores’ survey. (omitted) The General was wearing an open-necked shirt and held an empty, unlit pipe in his right hand. He asked us to sit and listened patiently to our opinions. He interjected at some points with an opinion about an issue and from these opinions, we could see that he grasped the engineering problems that we were facing. He agreed with this work and gave instructions so that we received assistance.
(The Architecture of Antonin Raymond, Hiroshi Misawa, Kajima Institute Publishing)

Establishment of Pacific Consultants Inc.

While he was involved in the Tadamigawa development project, a deep mutual understanding developed between Eric Flores and the members of the Tuesday Club Consultation Office which met to put all their efforts into rebuilding Japan after the war. Flores appealed to Muneshiro Shiraishi and Fukujiro Hirayama saying, ‘Japanese engineers are brilliant. It would be great if we could work together as consultants. There will definitely be situations that require consulting engineers in both Japan and the East in the near future. I think it would be wonderful if we could do American-style consulting in these situations.’
Meanwhile, the members of the Tuesday Club Consultation Office, in particular, Fukujiro Hirayama, already had deep knowledge as a consulting engineer and, in order to develop Japanese technology and Japan itself, he even advocated the urgent introduction of the Western-style consulting engineer system and this proposition was the best opportunity one could ask for.
In September, 1951, the U.S. corporation, Pacific Consultants Inc. was inaugurated. This was the birth of the predecessor of Pacific Consultants Co., Ltd. The headquarters of Pacific Consultants Inc. was set up at 129 South State Street, Dover, Kent County in the state of Delaware, of the U.S. Capital was 3,000 dollars. It was a U.S. capital company created with the equal investments of Muneshiro Shiraishi and Eric Flores as well as Antonin Raymond.

(The 25-year History of Pacific Consultants, published by Pacific Consultants Co., Ltd.)

Establishment of the Tuesday Club Consultation Office

In January, 1948, Tashiro and other engineers, who had clubbed together after the war to lament the nation that had been devastated, received a letter from this unique friend, Raymond. ‘I am very fond of Japan. From what I hear, Japan is now in great difficulty and I would like to do anything I can to help. Please let me know what I can do or tell me how things are there.’ Tashiro and the others sent the following reply to Raymond. ‘There are two things that we must do for Japan now as engineers. The first is the development of electric power since there is a severe lack at the moment and the other is to increase the production of coal.’
Raymond visited Japan in the autumn of 1948 and Tashiro and the others told him about their plan for the development of the Tadamigawa dam. He agreed considerably with the plan but he recommended that it was essential to have a survey and report from a prestigious American consulting engineer in order to proceed with the plan. In June of 1949, they received a communication from Raymond saying that Eric Flores of Westinghouse International was coming to Japan.
Before Flores came to Japan, Tashiro and the others named the group that was involved in activities overseas, the Tuesday Club Consultation Office on July 1st, 1949. This Tuesday Club Consultation Office was set up in Room 424 of the Maru Building, the Shiraishi Foundation Headquarters and later became the matrix to establish Pacific Consultants Co., Ltd. Raymond came to Japan with Flores in October, 1949 and at the beginning of November, they conducted the Tadamigawa site survey with Fukujiro Hirayama, Muneshiro Shiraishi, Yayoimi Fukihara and Yasuo Kawano.

(taken from The Brief Life of Tashiro Shiraishi, Shunta Shiraishi, published by Tashi Real Estate)

Establishment of the Professional Engineer System

The Tuesday Club Consultation Office was organized and the Shiraishi brothers, Tashiro and Muneki, and Fukujiro Hirayama et al., who had acquainted themselves with the civil engineering technology societies of the countries of the West, decided to establish the Professional Engineer System, considering that the introduction of Western-style consulting businesses and consulting engineering systems was indispensable to the nature of post-war engineers.
These were required qualifications for an engineer but the work of an engineer is brought about by trusting relationships and faith in the person making the request in the same way as for doctors and lawyers and in order to undertake this work, there must be no insufficiencies in the personality of the person as an engineer as well as having enough knowledge and experience of one’s own professional technology. (omitted) An engineer must have professional knowledge of his technology, backed up by plenty of actual experience.
It is unclear what level of understanding the engineers had of the Consulting Engineer Act but (omitted) there are no benefits to having a monopoly on a profession. In other words, even though it is a qualification law, it is not a regulatory issue and therefore no more than an assisting law due to its monopoly of the name.
The basis of requests to engineers is trust in their technical and professional intellect therefore, it is more or less absurd to base the choice of an engineer on competing bids such as amount of remuneration. The choice must be based on negotiations with an engineer in whom you have complete trust.
(Essay – Living Construction, Fukujiro Hirayama, issued by Sankaido)

Service to the International Community

The first step to Kawano’s overseas activities was his trip to the U.S. in March, 1954. Kawano, who became Executive Director and Chief Engineer of the newly-founded Pacific Consultants, was appointed as a consultant to explain the situation in order to get financing from the World Bank for a radical large-scale project to plan a water business in Aichi which was started with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Following this, he started to work energetically on overseas assignments in parallel with domestic projects. ‘We are prepared to make technology our life’s work but in order to do this our technology must be valid on the international level.’ Service to the international community with this technology was the basic concept of Kawano et al. (omitted)
In April, 1974, as a result of working hard on the establishment and operation of the Association of Consulting Engineers, Japan, it was authorized as an incorporated association in August, 1977. Kawano served as director then chairman from the time it was established and took great pains to carve out an international position for Japanese consultants. As a result, the Association of Consulting Engineers, Japan joined the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) in October, 1974. In the following years, with the recommendation and approval of member country committee members, Kawano became the first Japanese person to be appointed to the FIDIC Executive Committee.

(taken from Consultant Biography Series - Yasuo Kawano Edition, Motoaki Takahashi, Japan Civil Engineering Consultants Association Quarterly, Tomorrow’s JCCA)