Cooke's Tale 3

　The Marine Meteorological Observatory was inaugurated on April 15, 1924. In April 1924, Mr. Rikichi Sekiguchi, an engineer of the observatory, started solar observations with Mr. Shigeru Ichiki, and in April 1924, they published "The course of Mercury on the solar surface"; in December 1925, they published "On the movement of sunspots, white spots, and crepe spots" with Mr. Tatsuo Taguchi; and in November 1926, they published "Detection of the direct effect of solar activity on temperature" with Mr. Taguchi. In November 1926, he and Taguchi published "Detection of the Direct Effect of Solar Activity on Air Temperature" in the journal of the Marine Meteorological Observatory, "Sea and Sky". Mr. Sekiguchi utilized the Cooke telescope for four years. On June 7, 1929, Emperor Showa visited Kobe to observe sunspots with the Cooke telescope. It can be said that these 11 years were the most brilliant period of the Cooke telescope.

　After Mr. Ichiki's transfer, the telescope was somewhat managed, but during the war, it was often left in the dome of the Marine Observatory for 15 years, from 1935 to 1949.

　After the Hanshin Flood and neglect, the Cooke Telescope was faced with a further challenge: air raids. In 1945, Kobe was bombed five times by air raids. In 1945, Kobe was bombed five times, mostly by incendiary bombs, but also by mines and mock atomic bombs dropped on the port of Kobe, killing more than 8,000 citizens and foreigners.

　In the air raid of March 17, 1945, four people were killed, including Sano, the director of the observatory. In the air raid of June 5, the main building (No. 1 building), machine shop, printing shop, and government buildings were destroyed by fire. The annex (Building 2), where the Cook Telescope was installed, survived, but incendiary bombs hit the dome, rendering it unusable. 

　This is the area around the Old Foreign Settlement, which was bombed on March 17, 1945. Black smoke from the fire can be seen.

　This is a view of the Port of Kobe and the city center, which were set ablaze by indiscriminate attacks by the U.S. military in March 1945.

　 Incendiary bombs from the U.S. military also fell on JR Kobe Station (then on the Ministry line), causing a huge fire.

　This is a view of the burnt-out area caused by air raids, seen from what is now the Kobe Ijinkan. A Muslim mosque can be seen.

　The Motomachi shopping district, which used to be a fashionable and fashionable town, has turned into a ruin.

　A densely populated residential area near Minatogawa Park that has been burned to the ground.

　Even though it was abandoned for a time, the Cook Telescope was protected from the war.

　（The first photo shows the Monument to Life and Peace in Okurayama Park, and the third photo shows the area with the crane looking northeast from Okurayama Park, where the Marine Observatory used to stand. The third photo: Looking northeast from Okurayama Park, the area with the crane is the high ground where the Marine Observatory used to be. In the middle left of the photo is Kinseidai.）

　(References)

Weather in Hyogo - 100 years of watching the sky and the sea, Kobe Marine Observatory and Ministry of Finance Printing Bureau, 2001

Marine Observatory and Kobe Collection, by Yoh Nyoumura, Seizando Shoten 2010

Chasing the Sun Again, Kobe City Board of Education, Editorial Committee of Telescope History, Kobe Shimbun Publishing Center, 1984

Photo Album 150 Years of Kobe, Yasumoto Yamada, Jyurinsha, 2017

Kobe City 100th Anniversary,Kobe City,1989