Hideki Yukawa, Sin-itiro Tomonaga and Shoichi Sakata pioneered nuclear and particle physics and left enduring legacies. Their friendly collaboration and severe competition laid the foundation to bring up the active postwar generation of nuclear and particle physicists in Japan. In this presentation we illustrate milestones of nuclear and particle physics in Japan from 1930s to mid-1940s which have been clarified in Yukawa Hall Archival Library, Tomonaga Memorial Room and Sakata Memorial Archival Library.