Retrospective Overview on Developments of “Soils and Foundations”

Abstract

To look back at the traces of the development of “Soils and Foundations” and write up a synthesized story of evolution is, needless to say, beyond the capacity of the author. It is rather easy to retrospectively describe the achievements of old times, but it becomes increasingly difficult to deal with more recent advances because of the vast majority of events taking place—too many to digest— and also because it is all but impossible to simply explain such complex work. Yet, in the course of time, while less important events are put gradually out of our memories, only the noteworthy and most significant achievements remain. It is the telling of these memories that survive the passage of time that establishes them as of commonly recognized milestones. As such, it would be wise to rely upon the natural screening process as just described and not dare to touch on the most recent development in details. In this context, the intention of this article is mainly to unveil the progress in the early period of the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS) and to clarify the situations culminating in the birth and subsequent evolution of the English journal, “Soils and Foundations”. Regarding the events related to more recent developments, only a bird's eye view will be presented herein.