Physicist Amok

I just got back from Analytical and Quantitative Light Microscope 2007 at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. Maybe I’ll post something on the course later, but I found one thing that deserves wide dissemination.

On the wall outside the library are two sheets of handwritten paper. You can see them at Woods Hole’s website. These were tacked to the door of a marine biological laboratory in Japan just after World War II. The Japanese navy had kicked the scientists out and used the place as a submarine base. Katsuma Dan posted this just after the Americans took it.

The text is hard to read in the photos, so here it is:

This is a marine biological station with her history of over sixty years. If you are from the Eastern Coast (of the US), some of you might know Woods Hole or Mt. Desert or Tortugas (Marine Biological Stations). If you are from the West Coast, you may know Pacific Grove or Puget Sound Biological Station. This place is a place like one of these. Take care of this place and protect the possibility for the continuation of our peaceful research. You can destroy the weapons and the war instruments, but save the civil equipments for Japanese students. When you are through with your job here, notify to the University and let us come back to our scientific home.

The last one to go

A friend of mine’s response when I showed this to him pretty much sums it up: “Yes, some of us have more important things to do than fight wars.”