In any case, the miserable economy did not allow the luxury of
experimental research. Tomonaga was living with his family in a
laboratory, half of which had been bombed to bits. Nambu arrived
at the University of Tokyo as a research assistant and lived for
three years in a laboratory, sleeping on a straw mattress spread
over his desk (and always dressed in military uniform for lack
of other clothes). Neighboring offices were similarly occupied,
one by a professor and his family. A Hungry Peace Getting food
was everyone’s preoccupation. Nambu would sometimes find
sardines at Tokyo’s fish market, which rapidly produced a stench
because he had no refrigerator. On weekends he would venture to
the countryside, asking farmers for whatever they could offer.
Several other physicists also used the room. One, Ziro Koba, was
working with Tomonaga’s group at Bunrika on the self-energy
problem. Some of the officemates specialized in the study of
solids and liquids (now called condensedmatter physics) under
the guidance of