Escape from the atomic bomb: miraculous rediscovery of zinc blocks of the Takamochi Mori’s taxonomic monograph on planktonic copepods

Abstract

The year 2015 is a memorial one, corresponding to the 70th year after the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima City, which killed a world-famous copepodologist Takamochi Mori. He published a big monograph entitled “The pelagic Copepoda from the neighbouring waters of Japan” in 1937. Although we thought that the materials of the book might have been burnt down on August 6, 1945 together with him, almost all of the original zinc plates of the monograph were re-discovered in January 2015. We briefly describe why these miraculously remain without being involved in the tragedy, and review his achievements. Hope this short paper could become a requiem for him.