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PRBFACE 



In June of 1941 I compiled An Illustrated Guide to the Edible Fishes of 

 the South Seas , wlilch was dedicated to the Im^^rlal armed forces by the 

 •Nippon Suisan Kabushlkl Kalsha as a contribution to the nntlon bv the fish- 

 ing Industry, "^ow, with the situation becoming; more and more serious, I am 

 convinced that it cannot be useless to make even a sli<^ht contribution to 

 the solution of the marine food problem in the South by studyin** the 

 poisonous fishes as well as the edible varieties, and, since T kno ; that the 

 military authorities have been ur^in» preparations alon"; the sa^ie lines, I 

 have not been able to resist the desire to comply with their wishes, 



'Then we were entrusted with this investigation by the naval authorities, 

 our pride and emotion were inexpressible, "e immediately made all prepara- 

 tions, obtained the cooperation of the !)epartment of Af»riculture of Tokyo 

 Imperial University and the Fisheries Experiment Station of the South Seas 

 Office, and despatched Yoshio Hiyama (on leave from his assistant professor- 

 ship at Tokyo Imperial University), Tanzo Mishisawa (technician ot the 

 Fisheries Qcperlment Station of the South Seas Office), Tomoharu ''urofushi 

 (temporarily assigned), and Shif^ru Arita (temporarily assirjned) to conduct 

 the investigation in the field from July to December, 1941. 



Our research teara, overcominfT unforeseen difficulties and inconveniences, 

 visited various South Sea Islands insofar as available transportation 

 facilities permitted, and after in general attaininrr their objectives all 

 returned safely on December 4 with the precious material which they had 

 assembled. Only four days later the war broke out and the declaration of 

 war was oromulgated, which can only be regarded as a miracle of divine provi- 

 dence. 



Thereafter we busied ourselves in or'^anizinir and compiling: our data, and 

 were able to gain a knonled«^e of the general situation ivlth regard to 

 poisonous fishes of the South Seas. In June of the followinf^ year (1942) 

 we compiled an illustrated guide to poisonous fishes to be used as a ready 

 reference in the South Seas, particularly in the areas in which the Imperial 

 forces were operating, "r. Toshlo Hiyama had further advanced the iiork of 

 compilation to assemble the present detailed report of the vihole picture of 

 the investigation of poisonous fishes of the South Seas. Feeling that this 

 report was timely and should have a wide circulation, we have obtained the 

 I Page 2aj permission of the authorities to publish it. 



The work of con^ilatlon and editing has been greatly assisted by the 

 ardent labors' of "essrs, Shigeru T'uraraatsu, Tadashi Kumada, Takeo Funada, 

 Fukuzo Katano, and ?Tesdames Kikue Tomita and Ilatsue Sasaki. 



This report is, of course, not to be considered as final, and we expect 

 to carry on further researches at present and in the future. 



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