Photo/Illutration Kozo Takeuchi in 1942 (Provided by the Museum of Motoori Norinaga)

One of the best-known works by poet Kozo Takeuchi (1921-1945) goes, "Dying in battle is pitiful / Pitiful are soldiers who die."

He would be turning 100 next month, had he not died so young at only 23.

A memorial event is being planned in his hometown in Ise, Mie Prefecture.

Aspiring to become a film director, the young Takeuchi studied at the Nihon University College of Art, but was called up for military service.

Right before he was conscripted, he penned this monologue-like verse: "If I go to war / What will I do? / Will I perform a meritorious deed?" And he went on, "Or will I die in battle for being careless?"

His representative poem, titled "Hone no Utau" (The bones sing), is about his ashes returning home from the war front.

"I have come back / But how aloof are my compatriots," he wrote.

As if in fulfillment of this almost prophetic line, Takeuchi died on the Philippine island of Luzon in April 1945. He never lived to realize his dream of making a movie.

"He fell in one unrequited love after another, and left this world without marrying or ever seeing postwar Japan," said his niece, Nobuyo Shoji, 82.

It was a decade after his death that his bereaved family privately published a collection of his poems under the title of "Gu no Hata" (Flag of folly), and Takeuchi's name became known around Japan.

A poem of his that was discovered at the start of this century starts, "Oh Japan, my country / I cannot see you."

He was anything but a simple, patriotic youth, nor could he be categorized as an anti-war poet. He just vividly expressed the ambivalent feelings of a young man who lived through the wartime years of military conscription.

I wondered what he would be like if he were living in this era of social media supremacy.

He would certainly tune into the zeitgeist, but I can't see him pretending to be any more or any less than who he really is, nor ever bowing to peer pressure.

I imagine he would be freely posting his honest thoughts as a twentysomething, and his tweets would be going viral.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 28

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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