Cooke's Tale 2

　One of the people who played an important role in the installation of the Cooke Telescope at the Marine Observatory, which had nothing to do with astronomy, was Mr. Takematsu Okada, who at that time was the Director of both the Central Weather Bureau and the Marine Observatory. The Marine Meteorological Observatory was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education at that time. The Marine Meteorological Observatory was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education at that time, and since it was a research institute, the Ministry decided to purchase the world's most powerful telescope, which would be the centerpiece of the Marine Meteorological Observatory, even though it was not directly related to meteorology.

　The other is Mr. Rikichi Sekiguchi, who specializes in solar physics. Mr. Sekiguchi would later become the fourth Director of the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory. Mr. Sekiguchi had been using the Cooke 30cm telescope to observe the Sun in England, where he studied. It is said that he chose the Cooke telescope as the equipment to purchase because he was familiar with it from his study abroad.

　However, the first challenge came to the Cooke telescope, which had been used frequently since its installation at the Oceanic and Atmospheric Observatory.

　The Hanshin Flood struck the Hanshin region from July 3 to 5, 1938 (616 people died, 1011 were injured, 1410 houses were washed away, 854 were submerged, 8653 were completely or partially destroyed, and 79652 houses were flooded). The Marine Meteorological Station also recorded 461.8 mm of rainfall. A memorial tower has been erected at Yukinogosho Park (also known as Yukimi no Gosho, the former residence of Taira no Kiyomori), located 1 km southwest of the Marine Observatory, as it was the most severely flooded area.

　On the left is the Ishii River and on the right is the Tenno River.

　Above is a view of the area around Arata-cho 3 chome, south of the confluence of the Ishii River and Tenno River. The river formed above people's houses, flooding the entire town of Arata, and 200 people were missing.

　The muddy waters also swept over the main road connecting Kobe Port and Sannomiya on the Japanese National Railways (now JR).

　Flood runoff covering the perimeter of a tramway.

　A group of huge rocks washed up on the Sumiyoshi River. The night of the Great Hanshin Flood also appears in Junichiro Tanizaki's “Sasameyuki".

　Runoff that covered the road in front of Higashi Yuenchi in the center of Sannomiya. This road was originally the old Ikuta River. The new Ikuta River, which was replaced, was filled with huge rocks and the water flowed along the original course of the river.

　Since heavy machinery was not available in those days, the restoration was done by hand.

　The marine meteorological observatory was located on a hill on the mountainside of Kobe. The Cooke telescope was protected from the Hanshin Flood, which was a disaster of unprecedented scale.

(References)

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

Kobe City 100th Anniversary,Kobe City,1989