Ichthyology - a wartime blog

The war had barely ended when my ship was ordered to the Port of Hakodate on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. I guess we went there mostly to convince the Japanese that their war was over and that they had lost. Apparently the populace had already gotten the word, and we had no trouble coming ashore. So we did.

My first visit was, naturally, to the local museum. It was open, but there was no one about – not a soul. So I wandered through the corridor and halls. I came upon their collection of preserved local fishes. Sealed bottles and jars contained sea creatures preserved in alcohol along with labels written in Japanese, except for their Latin names. I was intrigued because I already knew that their revered God-Emperor Hirohito was an amateur Ichthyologist. Sure enough, I soon found a shelf of small, pocket-size bottles and no one was in the museum. I left all of them on the shelf. I’m still kicking myself, still, seventy years later.

M F Roberts