Thursday, May 12 1921: The poet Kozo TAKEUCHI was born

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, May 12: The poet Kozo TAKEUCHI was born in Fukiagecho, Ujiyamada City, Mie Prefecture (Present Fukiage, Ise City). He went on to Uji-Yamada Junior High School under the old system from Meirin Elementary School, which is famous for being the alma mater of baseball player Eiji Sawamura. 1940 (Showa 15) I went to Tokyo with a dream of becoming a movie director, and entered the film department of the prestigious Nihon University Specialty Division, but due to the Pacific War, 2 years later I graduated early and was drafted into the army. I was assigned to the paratroops in Tsukuba and received strict training when I went to the battlefield, and on April 9, 1945 (Showa 20), I was killed in the Baguio North of Luzon Island, the Philippines. His poetic poem was written while he was in the army, and was published by his family after the war as a collection of his posthumous writings, ‘a foolish flag’. Inaizumi Ren’s critical biography, ‘I am going to fight myself, but Kozo Takeuchi’s poem and death’ published in 2004 (2004) won the 36th OYA Soichi Nonfiction Award, drawing renewed attention.

The representative work of Kozo TAKEUCHI, ‘Bones sing’ is as follows.

Death in battle
the death of a soldier
hey, I’m gonna die in another country.
in silence and out of sight
to die
wind blowing in my hometown
eyes of my lover
disappear rapidly
for the country
for the Emperor
dying hearts

Be mossy
ah, the soldier dies.
unbearable loneliness
howl with a gun
look at one’s country in a white box
bones were silent and empty
I came back.
alienation of someone from one’s home country

People value their own business.
women’s clothes and make-up are more important.
no one loves bones.
the bones received a great medal
the bones were highly venerated
the bones were admired

But bones are only bones.
bones wanted to hear love.
but couldn’t.
the office work and common sense were drifting away.
the bones were worshiped as the bone
the bones were crunched into powder

The battlefield is a pathetic place.
the wind of the homeland blew the bones to pieces
my country was busy developing.
the woman was busy in the makeup
bones don’t exist after all.