1943, two years after the Pacific War began, Nakaya moved to a newly built atmospheric icing observatory at Mt. Niseko-Annupuri, a 1,308 meter (4,290 ft) mountain in Hokkaido. A Zero fighter plane was brought to the observatory in the hope of finding ways to prevent atmospheric icing. The following year, Nakaya moved to the Nemuro coast to study artificial dissipation of fog. After the war, he continued his research for the Laboratory of Agricultural Physics into flood and snowmelt in drainage basins. Nakaya always enjoyed field work as well as laboratory research. His studies took him to locations ranging from the top of Mauna Loa, Hawaii to the ice island T-3 in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In 1949, on the invitation of the International Glaciological Society (an organization in which he later served as co-chairman), Nakaya toured the United States and Canada and attended the meeting establishing SIPRE (Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment). From 1952 until 1954, he was a research fellow at SIPRE. During this time, he lived in Winnetka, Illinois and studied Tyndall figures – melt figures that develop inside large crystals of glacial ice after exposure to bright sunlight, which were first described by the British physicist John Tyndall. In 1954, Harvard University Press published his Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial, an illustrated work that summarized his research on snowflake crystals, starting from his work at Hokkaido University. Though long out of print, it still serves as a classic reference on crystal shapes, showing how a scientific investigation can proceed through systematic observation toward an accurate description of a natural phenomenon. In 1957 he visited Greenland as a member of the United States expedition for the International Geophysical Year. He visited Greenland several more times, usually staying for a month or two at a time, to observe the glaciological ice cap at the latitude 78° observatory site. In 1960, Nakaya underwent surgery for prostate cancer at the hospital at the University of Tokyo. He died on April 11, 1962, of osteomyelitis. In recognition of his achievements, he was posthumously decorated with one of the highest orders awarded by the Japanese government. In 1960, the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee named a group of Antarctic islands the "Nakaya Islands" in recognition of his contributions to science. The asteroid 10152 Ukichiro is also named after him. Snow crystals From 1933, Nakaya observed natural snow and created 3,000 photographic plates