午夜剧场

Due to the nature of my work, I often have opportunities to perform observations using an electron microscope. During those moments when I am immersed in observation, what drives me is the thought that "I might discover something interesting that has never been seen before." Do I observe because I want to discover something, or do discoveries happen because I am observing? In any case, I seem to occasionally discover things that most people would not pay attention to. In this article, I would like to write about an episode involving a modest "relic" I discovered previously, relying on my memory.

It was in a room inside an old building, said to have been built in either the Meiji or Taisho era, owned by a certain research institution where I was previously affiliated. One day, I suddenly noticed that there were traces of newspaper having been pasted onto the wall of a small room used for storage. The glued portions of the paper barely remained as traces about three lines of text wide.

Having discovered this, I became interested in when the newspaper was from and brought my face close to the fragments of paper that had oxidized and turned brown. Looking back, I am surprised I even felt the urge to observe it. Sure enough, I thought I could decipher words with meanings such as "Overview of Occupied Territories" and katakana words that seemed to be place names from across Asia. From the sequence of words that would almost never be used in combination in modern society, I imagined that this might have been a newspaper from during the war... and I felt a solitary excitement at my great discovery.

Regrettably, however, I did not leave any records, such as photographs of the paper fragments, at that time. This is why the crucial content of the page can only be described in vague terms. And now, it is impossible for me to observe those paper fragments again. The campus itself that housed the building has been closed. What on earth was the true identity of those paper fragments? And was my analysis based on the observation results correct or not?

Fortunately, the building was recognized for its value as a historical site, escaped demolition, and is being renovated by the local government. I had the opportunity to chat with the person in charge from the local government and told them, "There are traces of very old-looking newspaper remaining on the wall of the room," but I wonder if the relic I discovered will remain as it was after the renovation is complete.